Storm the Coast I: The Unlikely Hero
by Lord Narf
Summary: Fritzie, as a dog, lives a dull and uneventful life. But when she wins a contest to meet the 'world famous' Chipmunks, a series of small mistakes, misunderstandings, and improbable timing turns everyone's lives upside down. Changed/alternate ending.
1. Prologue: The Contest

The Unlikely Hero - Alvin and the Chipmunks Fanfic  
Written (mainly) by Tal "Narf" Hradsky  
Credits to Felicity Wynter, Allie, (better known as B-MillerX here on FFN), and Allie's friend Andrew for helping me write it. You three know who you are. ;)

**_Update: August 22, 2008_**

**_I don't mean to bump the story up again, I actually completed this story at the end of March. I have two reasons for doing this though. The first reason being I changed the ending a little bit. I elaborate more on it in "Chapter 27: Post Complete Author's Notes." The other reason for bumping it back up, although it's nowhere near a primary reason, is because if I'm going to write a sequel on the story, I might as well get much of the new generation of Chipmunk fans (WOW! 260+ fics? The popularity really exploded in the last few months!) aquainted with my story. This way I don't get a bunch of confused faces when they see the second story get posted sometime hopefully by the end of 2008._**

**_This story may be pretty old, but if there's any new (Chipmunk) writers or readers that haven't read this story yet, I would love to know what you guys think of this story. I'm very open to reviews, I love feedback, it helps motivate me to do things. Why create something fantastic if you aren't going to get feedback doing it? It's the motto of all procrastinators and lazy people, such as myself. So please, leave a few reviews on my story and tell me what you guys think. I have great ideas for several installments in the future and no motivation to write it._**

**_-Narf_**

* * *

**Before you even start reading this, I'm only going to say this once... be aware that The Chipmunks and the Chipettes, as well as Dave and Miss Miller of course, are NOT mine. They are copyrighted by Bagdasarian Productions. The remainder of the characters in this story are developed and created by myself, with the name of the good doctor borrowed from Felicity, one of the three people I role-played with to develop this story. So I can say that all of the characters, the most notable one being Fritzie, is copyrighted by myself, and if you would like to feature her in one of your stories, please ask me permission first. The story itself was 100 percent written by me, but the groundwork wasn't, and thats why I have three other people I credited to a few lines up.**

**For all of you corporate swines that may be stalking upon my story, be aware also that I wrote this story, as well as any possible sequel, for kicks and giggles just to waste my time productively and entertain people. I did not in any way shape or form do this for profit. Therefore, I am not doing anything illegal, being as this is a free fanfic. And with that, get your own damn story!**

**On the lighter note, please read the introductory author's note, because there are a few important things to go by in terms of how the story is formatted. I'm actually a nice person, I just have a mistrust for corporation.**

**A/N:** Hey there guys. Well, this is the first time I seriously wrote a full story, and I'm kind of excited about it. I just wasnt expecting a few things. Firstly, that my first complete story was actually a fanfic, instead of an original storyline. Secondly, that this story was based off a cartoon that I lacked even really knowing about as a kid. Another thing, that I wrote the fanfic to cleverly have songs in it. And finally, that I would base my first fanfic off of a role play, which is something I also, never truly done before. XD

Now read this. When you get to a song, I will provide a link to the song so that you can hear it while you are reading it. When you get to the link, where I will outline key song somewhere in there, be sure to RIGHT CLICK the link, and go to open in a new window, or new tab if you are using a more current version of Internet Explorer/Firefox. All the song links go directly to YouTube. If you dont trust the links I encoded in there, I will put the link itself in text format up in parenthesis so that you can manually open it in a new window. I'll have the lyrics in the story, along with the actions, so that you can (sort of) get an idea what the 'music video' would look like. If a character actually sings the song, there will be a name where the lyrics belong to.

**(Since this was originally written for just DeviantART, I will make the changes to this one accordinly, leaving just the link behind when you get to the song. When that happens, just open a new tab or window and copy and paste the link.)**

* * *

Example:

-Character Name (Back-up Singers)-  
_Lyrics to the song go here. (Background singers sing these)  
Additional lyrics go here if the character sings it._

Insert any character's actions here.

* * *

Oh, and if you are a slower reader, please, I advise you to read the story bit of it that goes along with the song **first** before you read it with the music. The last thing that I want is for you to get lost. In fact, listening to the songs are totally optional to begin with. However, if you listen to the song with the blurb, it makes much more sense as you can get the emotion that I'm trying to draw out.

Oh, and one final thing with the songs. I realize that some of the songs that I chose were not the original intent by the song writer. For example, one of the songs in my story is a song about a guy breaking up with a 'cold hearted' girlfriend. I worked the song in, instead, to show a character directing anger to another character in a non-relationship manner. When you get to that part, and if you remember what I'm saying right now, you will understand exactly which song I am talking about.

Oh, and by the way, this story is based in the cartoon universe. I thought I would point that out, because ever since the live-action movie, it seems to have split in two: cartoon universe and movieverse. I like the cartoon universe better, and this one was intended to be in the cartoon universe anyways.

Anyways, I think I talked to you too much. So, cheers, enjoy the story.

-Narf

**--Prologue: The Contest--**

"Hey, Dave?" Alvin said, tugging on Dave's shirt, Simon and Theodore closely behind him.

"Yes, Alvin?" Dave said irritabtly.

"How would you feel about-"

"No." Dave said sternly. He didn't want to be bothered with whatever Alvin was thinking today. He just wanted to finish writing his song.

"Geez Dave," Alvin said glumly, "you could at least let me finish my sentence before saying no."

Dave raised an eyebrow. He had been interrupting Alvin a lot lately before he could finish asking him for things lately. He let out a heavy sigh. "Sorry, Alvin. I have been having a hard time writing songs lately, and I have one due in a few days. Can you ask me some other time?"

Alvin on the other hand didn't want to hear it this time. "No, Dave. I'm sick of you cutting me off every time I need to ask you something! All I wanted was permission to go to the freaking store!"

Theodore's eyes begged a little bit. He didn't like the fact that Dave was so impatient lately. "Yeah, Dave. You told us that we can't go anywhere without asking you. Why even bother if you're going to cut us off like that?"

Dave sighed again. He knew they were right. "Listen, I'm sorry fellas. It's just been a rough few weeks. I cant seem to get a good match."

"Well, why don't you take a break?" Simon interjected. Dave basically locked himself into the house's recording studio for the last three weeks. "I'm sure if you take your mind off of it, something will come out naturally."

"Yeah, Dave, we don't like to see you so nerve-racked." Theodore said in chorus.

"Or so freaking impatient!" Alvin whined out.

"Alvin, cool it with the language." Dave groaned, putting his head in his hand over the keyboard.

Alvin shot a glare at Dave. He sat down against the wall and pouted.

"Okay, here guys, I'll make it up to you. We'll have a contest." Dave said, getting up from the keyboard and walking relatively sleepily out of the recording studio. Alvin perked up immediately.

"A contest!?" Alvin jumped up and grinned. "Wait. What kind of contest are we talking about here?"

"We'll have one of your and your brother's fans stay here for a week. How about that." Dave said smugly, looking over his shoulder. He knew that this would silence Alvin for a little bit, but he also knew that Alvin was going to hold him to it. The boys' eyes lit up.

"Really? You would do that for us?" Alvin said, his eyes becoming big.

"Sure, you guys have the whole week off for memorial day this year, why not have it then. It will make the rest of the school year by then fly by.

"Wow that sounds awesome!" Simon and Theodore said in unison. Alvin on the other hand kicked the side of the couch lightly. Dave frowned.

"And why are you upset now, Alvin." Dave grumbled, raising an eyebrow.

"Dave, it's February." Alvin said as a matter of factly.

"Well, we can't just pick a winner overnight. We have to give at least a good two month's entry time." Dave said sternly, covering his face with one of his hands. Alvin nodded.

"Okay, makes sense." Alvin said, a touch disappointed, but happy none the less. "So, can we go to the store?" Alvin asked again, looking up and flashing a grin at Dave.

"Okay, but this time guys, don't come back with four days worth of snacks." Dave said, looking particularly at Theodore. "I don't want you boys to just eat snacks, I want you guys to eat dinner too."

"We promise Dave!" Alvin said, running out the door and hopping onto his shiny red mongoose. He rode the bike around the driveway in a tight circle, waiting for his brothers to come outside.

Theodore walked outside with Simon and looked around the yard. "Do you think Dave meant it?" Theodore asked Simon naively.

"Well, if he didn't, Alvin is going to make sure he did, so I can safely say yes." Simon said with a grin on his face. He liked the idea of meeting a new person, he just hoped that the winner was someone intelligent instead of some goof that Alvin would want to cause mischief with, or that Theodore would just cook with. Most of their fans that they meet were usually biased to one of them without a chance of really meeting the other two.

Theodore giggled. "I hope that he's real friendly."

Simon raised an eyebrow. "What if the winner is a girl?"

"That's impossible!" Alvin yelled out across the driveway. "Dave wouldn't let a girl visit us for a week!"

Simon rolled his eyes. "That's not true, you just don't want to have a girl as a winner!"

Theodore giggled again. "If a girl wins, I hope she's real friendly then."

"Theodore a girl is not going to win!" Alvin yelled out.

Simon tossed a ball at Alvin, hitting Alvin in the arm. "It's a fair contest. If a girl wins, well then we will just have to adjust accordingly."

Alvin frowned. "I don't want to end up doing girly stuff!"

"What happens if the girl is a tomboy?" Simon said, raising an eyebrow. Alvin touched his lip with a finger.

"What's a tomboy?" Theodore asked.

"It means that its a girl that acts like a guy." Simon replied.

"Okay, fine. I hope either a guy or a tomboy wins!" Alvin yelled out. "Now come on, lets go to the store already! I want to get me some Mountain Dew."

Simon rolled his eyes. He knew that they all had their taste in who could win this, he just hoped that the winner was something everyone could agree on.

* * *

It was a hot and muggy May morning in Florida. May was normally the perfect time of year in many places, but where I lived, hell, you could fry an egg on the side of the road, and the humidity made it hard to breathe outside.

I woke up slowly, it was two in the afternoon, so I slept off much of the day. I rubbed my eyes and looked up. A dog playing on the computer... what the hell, was I dreaming?

"Morning, bro." Fritzie said, looking to the side and giggling. I blinked stupidly looking at my nine year old dog Fritzie. She was a wire-haired fox terrier, a little big for her breed, with neatly trimmed short wavy hair. The fur on her face and arms were a whitish orange, steel blue on her back, and various other spots of color that would be a little bit hard to describe.

After rubbing my eyes, I realized where my head was... what an awkward dream. Something about dogs tackling chipmunks? A new job opportunity? Fritzie a national hero? It didn't make any sense to me, but I at least got a new job rather than my irritating fast food job. Jobs were far and few, but now that I finally got myself a car, it was time to slowly start looking for a new one. Course, I was comfortable with what I had, despite how much of a roller coaster it was.

"Oh, morning Fritzie." I said groggily, looking around my tiny six by seven foot room. My bed took up almost half of the room, and my computer set-up took up much of the rest. "Why are you on the computer?"

Fritzie was anthropomorphic for about a year and a half now. I remember when it first happened, she got extremely sick, but when she came out of it, she started walking on two feet and changing shape slightly. She learned how to talk, and do advanced stuff, like high school math, and english, thanks to my tutoring. She still had many qualities of a normal dog, exceptional hearing, good sense of smell, and when she is in normal dog form, she ran at a very good clip. Yes, she can freely morph between forms. Kind of odd to witness, but I didn't care. She gets quite a reaction though when she's in public, so she didn't do it very often there. If she was by herself though, she was anthropic.

"Just checking the weather. The heat today is killing me." Fritzie groaned, staring at the National Weather Service homepage for the Tampa Bay area. "It's going to be in the mid nineties today."

"Heh, that's nothing new." I said, throwing on some clothes that were in a heap in my closet. "Any chance of rain today?" I asked, stealing a brief glance at the computer screen before going to check the mailbox.

"Eh, twenty percent, the usual." Fritzie sighed. Even being a very special dog, life was quite uninteresting. She didn't have any friends, except for some unsuspecting people she talked to online while I'm at work or when I'm sleeping.

That's why I entered her into a contest. She was reluctant to go with me to the store that day, but something about it seemed worthy.

* * *

'Win a chance to visit with the one and only Chipmunks musical group for a week.'

Of course, when I read the flier the day before, I thought it was just a joke. I've heard about The Chipmunks before, I thought they were pretty talented. Of course, I was also nineteen years old. I was way too old for them, so I decided to enter Fritzie in it instead.

"Why are you even bothering, Tal?" Fritzie groaned, watching me fill out the form. "It's not like anyone wins these contests anyways!"

"Come on, don't protest to me. What could be so bad about trying? It doesn't sound like one of those 'win a free boat' scams. You're talking about visiting a group of celebrity kids! It'll give you something to do." I said cheerily, giving Fritzie the pen to sign her name on the form.

"If you're so enthusiastic about it, why don't _you_ fill the form out?" Fritzie grumbled, walking off to grab a candy bar and a soda.

"Fritzie, they're nine. Mom would look at me stupid if I decided to visit a trio of nine year olds! I'm twice their age. You are their age group, so I'm gonna enter you instead."

Fritzie raised an eyebrow, a cross and skeptical look blazed across her face. "And you would let me go to Los Angeles by myself?"

I dropped the pen. She absolutely had a point about it. She was a US citizen though, I helped her sign up for one so that there wouldn't be constant trouble with animal shelter people and whatnot. So if she had proper identification, and since she was a dog she would technically be considered as an adult, since dogs become adults when they're four.

Funny about the science behind it. Fritzie isn't the only anthropomorphic dog in the world, and after some research, scientists found out that they are superiorly intelligent, and actually have a lifespan almost as long as a humans. But I had to pull a few strings for the social security card though. Amazingly, they accepted it, but that doesn't stop the continual prejudice she faces.

Anyways, I thought about it for a second. Fritzie could do it, she was quite independent... a little too much for her own good I think. After some long thought, I figured that it would be better to consult mom about it.

"Crap. You have a point." I said, clenching the flier in my hand. I stuffed it into my pocket, and paid for the snacks Fritzie and I bought.

We hopped into my pick-up and drove home. I personally felt alright with the idea, but she would have to check in at least on the first day when she arrived.

"Are you nuts!" Mom yelled out at me. "You want to enter Fritzie into a contest where you won't even be supervising her?"

"Hey, I'm sorry! I didn't think of it when I filled the form out. I still have the form with me here, see?" I pulled the flier out of my pocket. She studied the flier and frowned.

"The Chipmunks?" mom said sarcastically.

"Hey, they are in a way a lot like Fritzie, I thought maybe it would be a good idea for her to make a few new friends." I said as a mater of factly.

"Tal, it's just a contest. Do you think that Fritzie would win? There has to be at least a few hundred thousand other entries! Besides, Fritzie couldn't take care of herself in Los Angeles! It's too dangerous!"

"Yeah, I know, that's why I'm letting it go." I said, sighing. Fritzie opened up the bottle of Mountain Dew she bought.

"As a matter of fact, Fritzie couldn't even take care of herself, and you know that." Mom said, looking down at Fritzie with a smile. Fritzie almost spit up the swig of soda she drank.

"Excuse me!" Fritzie said dryly, coughing up a little bit of the soda she swallowed quickly. "I can take care of myself perfectly fine now." Fritzie growled, wiggling her fingers.

"I'd like to see that for a change then." Mom said.

"Grrrr!" Fritzie said angrily, snatching the flier out of my hands and digging into my pocket for my pen. She then signed her name on the flier. "Fine! If you don't think I can be independent, I'll take the damn flier to the store myself!"

I rolled my eyes. Mom went just a little too far that time. Mom could see it too.

Mom sighed. "I'm sorry Fritzie, I didn't mean it like that..."

"Don't care!" Fritzie yelled out, and slammed the door shut.

Now it was mom's turn to roll her eyes. "Your dog, your responsibility." And with that, she went back to her room.

I blinked for a second, then ran out the door. Fritzie was already far down the street with the flier in her mouth. I knew that I couldn't keep up with her when she was running in normal form, so I immediately hopped back into my pickup and drove after her.

When I finally caught up to her a few blocks away, I honked the horn at her. She stopped running and cringed, turned anthro, and covered her ears. She looked behind her and saw me.

"Get in the truck. Now." I said coldly. Fritzie didn't hesitate.

"I'm sorry Tal, I shouldn't have ran off like-"

"I'm not mad at you. I just had to sound mean to get you into the car because you would have rattled off on me and kept going." I replied, interrupting her in mid sentence. Fritzie fell silent.

'Tal's probably right,' she thought, looking out the windshield. When she noticed I wasn't heading home, she began to wonder.

"Where are we going?" Fritzie asked.

"Proving mom wrong." I said. Fritzie blinked at me.

"You mean...?"

"Mom said 'your dog, your responsibility' to me. I wanted you to enter this contest in the first place, and now that you agree with me, I think it's time you showed the world who's boss." I said, patting her on the shoulder as we pulled into the gas station where I got the flier.

"You know that we still don't have a chance at winning this though, right? I mean, I probably will never get to prove myself." Fritzie said dryly. I shook my head.

"Unlikely is more of the term Fritzie." I said getting out of the truck. "You do have **one** chance, even if there are four hundred thousand entries, you still have a chance. Even if you didn't win, we could say we tried it for kicks and giggles."

Fritzie laughed. She smiled and looked up towards the sky in thought. She didn't know who The Chipmunks were anyways, but it wouldn't hurt to do a little research on them. "Okay, let's do it. The contest ends in two weeks anyways, it might be better to fill it out now instead of last minute anyways."

I studied the flier. It said that the winner would receive a letter in the mail in early May. It was late March then, so there was plenty of time to completely forget about the contest. The phase will pass.

* * *

I ran outside to check the mail. Stupid idea to run out barefooted, the pavement outside of the mailbox was swelteringly hot. I quickly whisked the mail out of the mailbox and ran for the cool grass behind the mailbox.

After a relieving sigh of standing in the grass for a moment, I began fiddling with what I got in the mail.

As I started walking back to the front gate, I noticed that we got a little more mail than usual. There were about fifteen letters or so.

"Oh, boy, I wonder how many of these are credit card offers. Seriously, its like they are a pack of wolves or something!" I complained loudly, flipping through the mail. As I got inside, there was a very odd letter in there, addressed to... Fritzie? My eyes narrowed.

"Great, first they mail credit card offers to me, now they mail them to dogs too? What is the world coming to?" I growled, then noticed it wasn't a credit card offer. The address was from somewhere in Los Angeles. My eyes narrowed even more.

What kind of crap _does_ Fritzie do online, anyways?

I stepped into my room with with my eyes still narrowed.

"What is this!?" I growled at Fritzie. Fritzie looked over and raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know, you tell me." Fritzie said sarcastically, surfing around for the latest news. Keeping up with current events was something else she was interested in. I put my hand on her shoulder and spun her around.

"This letter is addressed to you." I grumbled. "Since this is _your_ mail, I'm legally not allowed to open it."

Fritzie drew out a blunt claw on her index "finger" and cleanly ran it along the seem of the letter. The letter smelled oddly like fuzzy woodland creatures. She threw the letter back at me. "I don't know what you're blaming me of, but I opened the letter, now _you_ read it."

"Don't give me an attitude." I said, opening up the professionally folded up letter. When I read what was on it, I just dropped the letter and froze. Fritzie gave me a real skeptical look.

"Oh, great. I don't like that look. Seriously Tal, if you think I buy things online, you are seriously mis-"

"You won." I said dryly. The shock was overwhelming.

"Okay, I wasn't expecting you to give up that ea-"

"No, you won. I cant believe it, you **won**!!" I said, cutting her off again. I picked up the letter and a grin appeared on my face. I totally forgotten about the contest. I eagerly handed her the letter.

Fritzie rolled her eyes. What could she have possibly won? She read the letter:

**'Congratulations, you won a one week stay at the home of the one and only Chipmunks Band! As stated in the contest, the stay is between May 24th through June 1st. We look forward to meeting you.'  
**_-Dave Seville_

**

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A/N: Anyways, here's the prologue. I love reviews and feedback, so please tell me what you think. I promise to update this story daily, because it's actually already **_**complete.**_** I would have hated to release a story without being sure to complete it, because cliffhangers would drive even some of the most sane people crazy, so yeah. I don't want to be a killjoy to start a story and never finish it.**

**If I get enough feedback though, I will happily begin writing the sequel. :D Oh, and by the by, even guests can leave a review, so feel free to write a few blurbs, even if it's just a couple of words. I'm a feedback whore, yes.**

**And one final bit, be sure to check out my writer's profile to check upon my DeviantART, because I will illustrate parts of my own story. I am an artist after all. :)**


	2. Chapter 1: Beginner's Luck

**A/N: Thank you for the kind reviews, Nikki and Chipmunklovers. I wont always update it one chapter a day, it depends on the length of it. This chapter, for example, is actually the shortest chapter in the story... it's even shorter than the epilogue, so yeah.**

**Anyways, I know that this chapter (and the next for that matter) doesn't have the boys in it, but once I upload chapter three, I promise it won't be "dull OC introductions" like it looks like. I want to make the rest of the story make sense to you.**

**So I will upload another chapter in a short amount of time. In the meantime, I love feedback and reviews. So let me know what you think, even if you are a guest. FFN is kind enough to let guests review stories around here, so let me know what you think too. :D**

**Anyways, here's Chapter 1, enjoy. Cheers! **

-Narf 

**---------------------Chapter 1: Beginner's Luck---------------------**

She blinked stupidly, examining the letter carefully. The signature was in ink! There's no way someone could just forge a signature either. She then decided to smell the letter, being a dog, it was standard procedure to smell what was given to her.

There was a whole assortment of aromas. It smelled a little bit like fuzzy woodland creatures, which she had gotten accustomed to NOT go after when she became anthropomorphic... however she still despised squirrels. The slight animal smell though was clean, humans would never be able to tell. It also smelled more dominantly like cupcakes and coffee. Whoever made the cupcakes was a pretty damn good cook. Could use a touch of cinnamon though. The rest of them were faint and unimportant.

I giggled a little bit. Fritzie looked over at me with a glare.

"What's so funny?" she asked, rolling her eyes.

"You don't _have_ to smell the letter. If it's inked, its genuine."

"Theres lots of things I can learn about this letter that you could never be able to comprehend. And it's real alright. I can smell very well groomed, um, animals of the sort." Fritzie said, putting a finger to her lip trying to explain it. There was no way to explain what a Chipmunk smelled like. "Whats most important about smelling this letter, is that I could track the smell from a fair distance away."

"Fritzie, you are going to Los Angeles." I pointed out.

"What's your point?" Fritzie grumbled, typing the address into Google Earth.

"You cant track a small scent in an entire _city_."

"I know that. I mean it will help when I actually am close." she said defensively. She had two weeks to get ready for her trip. She looked around in the envelope and noticed one plane ticket, round trip, and a photograph of a house. On the back of it, it said 'our house' scribbled messily on the back of it. She frowned. "And it looks like I'm going to have to find it myself, anyways."

I looked blankly at her. She flashed the single ticket. I groaned loudly. What I realized then was that I should have signed the optional 'guardian' line, but must have forgotten about it in the heat of the moment. I froze.

"You are NOT going by yourself, I'm sorry hun." I said, looking at her. The ticket was in her name.

"And you have the money to get a ticket to fly to California this late in the game? Your card maxes out before you can even buy the whole ticket! And you cant afford to leave work for a week anyways."

"Is there a number I can call?" I asked, looking around the envelope. This idea was over. No number. Crap, whatever happened to RSVP?

"Aw, come on Tal, I'll be fine. Besides, I've been tested for allergic reactions, even someone with a severe reaction to dogs aren't allergic to me!"

"That's not what I'm concerned about."

"I can obey traffic laws-"

"No!" I said abruptly.

"What about what you promised me, about showing the world who's boss?" she pleaded. I stopped for a second and remembered what I said back in March.

_"Mom said 'your dog, your responsibility' to me. I wanted you to enter this contest in the first place, and now that you agree with me, I think it's time you showed the world who's boss." I said, patting her on the shoulder as we pulled into the gas station where I got the flier._

I balled up a fist. I was surprised that she remembered that. I looked over my shoulder, she had an eagerly jumpy look, like that she wanted to go through with this. She certainly wasn't the dog that she was when she was well... a dog.

"I want you to trust me, Tal." Fritzie said, her warm brown eyes begging into my greenish blue eyes.

Mom stepped into the room. "If she wants to do this, let her."

I spun around so fast that I almost decked my mom one. I wasn't expecting her to sneak up on me. I warmly grasped her and grinned. "Sorry, didn't mean to spin around like that, you scared me." She gave me a hug.

"If you can get her some gadgets, I'm sure she can find her way." I blinked stupidly.

"But I thought you were totally against it?" I asked. Mom shook her head.

"I thought you were all out for it. Your old mom can surprise you." she said nodding, then bowing out of the room. Fritzie looked back at me with a huge grin.

"Please?" she asked softly.

I sighed. I didn't realize how hard of a decision this was. "Let's get you a cell phone and a GPS road map."

Fritzie bounced up and down in excitement. Off to Walmart!

I bought the top of the line GPS system that they had, and a prepaid phone with four hours worth of minutes. I thought that the phone was pretty cool though, because it was a flip phone with a camera on it. It would give Fritzie something to do when she was bored, and she could take pictures while she was there. She was very social, so I'm sure she could sneak in a few pictures just for laughs.

Fritzie looked at me excitedly. She wanted to know how to use everything before we even rung the stuff up. When we got home, I showed her.

"Tal, this GPS tracker is a little difficult to see." she said, peering into the GPS dumbly.

I looked at it and frowned. "What do you mean you cant i see /i it?"

"I didn't say I couldn't see it, I can see it perfectly fine. What I cant make out is directions."

"Do you need glasses or something?" I asked. That would be kind of funny looking, her with glasses. Fritzie kicked me.

"I can see details perfectly fine." she growled, pointing out a squirrel crossing the road down the street. See, there's a squirrel down the street. The point is, I cant make heads or tails on where to go, it's all the same color!"

That didn't occur to me. Fritzie was colorblind, or well, mainly colorblind. She could see some color, it was just very dull and washed out, and she couldn't rattle off any names. I sighed.

"Well, all of the GPS systems run in color. Either that, or else they are too vague and even the smartest humans couldn't make heads or tails out of it." I said, taking the GPS and looking for a grayscale option. I found one, but then I couldn't make heads or tails out of it that easily. "This better?"

Fritzie took the GPS from my hand again and blinked puzzlingly into it. "A little bit." Not the answer I was hoping for.

"Well, it will just have to do." I said reluctantly, punching the address from the envelope into the GPS tracker's computer. Amazingly it was only about ten miles from the airport. It also left a perfectly visible path from the airport to the Chipmunks place.

Now I wished though, that I could call to have this "Dave Seville" pick Fritzie up from the airport. Fritzie looked at me worriedly. She knew that I was eating at my mind trying to compromise a solution.

"Tal, even if I'm a minority, I'm bound to find someone at the airport. This virus that I happened to catch is pretty new, so most dogs are only eleven or twelve years old max, any dogs older than that would have probably died upon catching it, so I'm bound to run into someone that can help."

I looked at her funny. She backed up a little bit with a touch of fear showing up in her face. "Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked, taking another step back.

"Thats a crazy idea... but it might work." Alright, let's do it.


	3. Chapter 2: Drive to the Airport

**I decided to upload Chapter 2 today as well. This chapter is also nearly tied for the shortest chapter, which I didn't realize. But once the story begins to kick off, the chapters will begin to get pretty large and more action packed. And I appologize again, none of the chipmunks or chipettes are in this chapter, but the next chapter will, and just about all of the subsequent chapters after that. :P**

**I recieved a comment asking about anthropomorphic being a disease. Anthropomorhpic simply means that she has human characteristics. And no, its not a disease, but it is a by-product of a nasty and near fatal virus. The story gets touches up on it from time to time, but not all dogs are affected. But if a dog does get infected, the fatality rating is about 80 percent. Any survivor results in a genetic mutation, and that explains how Fritzie is the way she is, as well as a one shot character in this chapter.**

**Oh, and I sincerely appologize to any of the lurker guests around here, I didn't realize I had annonymous reviews OFF. The mistake has been corrected, thank you very much Jane for the tipoff. :)**

**Anyways, enjoy the next chapter, I will release Chapter 3 tomorrow, and maybe Chapter 4 as well. Keep on reviewing:P**

-Narf

**-------------------Chapter 2: Drive to the Airport------------------**

The morning of the day of her flight started off bleary. I wasn't used to getting up at six in the morning, but Fritzie began poking me.

"Dude, come on, we don't want to miss the flight." Fritzie said eagerly, poking me continuously. I tried to wave away Fritzie's poking, and it worked for a second. Until she gave me dog kisses.

I woke up and brushed the slobber off my face, Fritzie was in an uproar of giggles. I batted her an eye. She shrugged innocently.

"You left me no choice, my dear." she said innocently, giving me one of her cute looks. I rolled my eyes and rolled up out of bed.

I looked at her. She looked ridiculous with two pairs of shirts on and her jeans looked baggier than they normally did. I shook my head and went into the bathroom to shave and get a quick shower.

When I got done with that, I looked at her on the computer. She was checking the weather for both Orlando, where her flight was to depart, and Los Angeles County. She was going to Hollywood Hills.

"Why aren't you packed?" I asked stupidly, looking around the room noticing no luggage. Fritzie looked at me as if I asked a dumb question.

"I _am_ packed." she said, as a matter of factly. I shook my head again. I was still half asleep.

"You mean, all you are bringing is what you are wearing?" I asked stupidly. Sometimes, I forgot that she was just a dog. "At least bring another pair of jeans or something."

"I'm wearing another shirt and a pair of shorts underneath this." she said, pulling out her pair of basketball shorts out from underneath her jeans. The shorts were originally mine, but I outgrew them many years ago.

"No more extra clothes? No toothbrush, no nothing?" I asked groggily.

"Tal, I'm _a dog_," she said, rolling her eyes. "All I need is just the clothes I'm wearing, the GPS, cell phone, the plane ticket, the letter I received in the mail, my wallet with identifications and clarifications, and my MP3 player."

"Oh, okay." I said sleepily, then made a double take at her. "Wait, that's not **your** MP3 player, it's mine." I said, raising an eyebrow. She sighed loudly.

"What am I going to do during the flight?" she asked me. I rolled my eyes.

"I don't know, read a magazine?" I said, looking at Fritzie dumbly. Fritzie rolled her eyes at me back.

"They're outdated!" she protested. I sighed and slumped forward a little bit.

"Fine, just don't break it!" I said dryly, getting my clothes on. I had to be at least permitted to walk with Fritzie to the gate before she left.

We left the house at about 6:30. I never drove to Orlando before, and her flight was at 9:15, so I had to leave as early as I could to get there. I knew that Fritzie would arrive in LA sometime around 3:30 my time. Given time that she would find her way there around 5:00, I would get the phone call... while I was at work. I didn't realize it at first, because I forgot that California was three hours behind us. I will just have to go home during my break, I was working until closing that night, which is at 1:30 in the morning. Couldn't call out of this shift either, I needed the hours.

After a frustrating two hour drive, Fritzie and I arrived at the airport. Fritzie was covering her ears and cowering. I raised an eyebrow.

"What's the matter? Too loud?" I asked, as a plane roared overhead. Fritzie nodded very quickly. I pulled out a handful of cotton balls. Before I could even finish taking it out of the glove compartment, she seized the bad and began putting several of them in her ears. When the din was at a satisfying low, she nodded in agreement and gave me a thumbs up.

"Much better." she commented, winking.

"Can you still hear me?" I asked dryly. She nodded.

"Yep yep. Perfectly fine. I cant hear any whispers, but I can hear you great." she said happily, getting out of the car. We got lucky and found a parking spot right out front.

The airport itself was kind of confusing. I took a brochure map, and followed the guidelines to the receptionist was for her gate block.

The receptionist looked very bored, but when she saw me and well, Fritzie, she looked dumbly over at us.

"Hi there, I'm checking Fritzie here in for her flight," I meekly said, looking the receptionist square in the eye. I leaned on the desk, hoping for none of that 'uhh, your dog, sir' crap.

"Where is she?" the receptionist said, looking around the waiting room. My stare turned cold very fast. I picked her up gently, and looked at her again. She sighed. "Oh, is that her?" she said boredly. Fritzie immediately began pulling out her three forms of identification.

"Okay, listen lady, I don't have the time for the usual rudeness I get on a daily basis. Here's my social security card, my ID, and my immunization and allergenic records." Fritzie said boredly, and flipping over the immunization and allergenic records card. "I do not cause allergic reactions in any humans, and I am well behaved. If you would like to do a background check, go right ahead. I knew that this was going to happen today, and came well prepared for it."

The lady blinked stupidly. "You talk?" she said dryly and in surprise at the same time. Fritzie began growling.

"How rude!" she said crossly. Just then, another dog came out from inside the room behind the receptionist.

"Elizabeth, please," the dog pleaded. He appeared to be some sort of security guard of some sort. "How hard is it to accept the fact that some dogs are very talented, especially if you WORK with one."

"Sorry Paul," the receptionist, er, Elizabeth said dryly. Paul clenched a fist slightly, but softened up. I kind of blinked dumbly. Paul looked at me and frowned.

"Um, excuse me, don't mind me," Fritzie did say something about a possibility of meeting another dog like her here. "I'm just a little surprised that we could find someone to shed light on our current predicament, so to say. Forgive me for the look." I said shyly. Paul seemed to perk up.

"You don't know that kind of sympathy unless you're friends with one. I can understand. I'm just so used to the 'but you're a dog' bit. That and also people seem to think I'm some kind of translator." Paul said firmly. Fritzie giggled. "Anyways, since this happens a few times a day and my co-worker doesn't seem to want to give into acceptance just yet, I'll run you through to make sure. My manager and I apologize about any inconveniences."

"Not a problem," I replied happily, "I was expecting tons of flack instead. You are everything I could have hoped for."

Paul smiled. "Thank you." he mouthed out silently to me. I nodded.

Within no time at all, he came back with an approval letter.

"Here, Fritzie, you are going to need this. This is for certified approval for your future flights if need be. This is also certification to ride the Los Angeles transit system." he said, winking at Fritzie. "Basically, this is a governmental approval stating that if they don't oblige, they will lose their job."

I stared wide-eyed. It was a total relief that this would work out _much_ smoother than I thought. Well, there goes the car-surfing idea that I thought she would try to pull.

Fritzie began bouncing up and down. "I could totally hug you right now!" Paul laughed and stooped down a little bit. Paul was my height, six foot. Fritzie was only about three foot ten. Fritzie ran up and nearly glomped him.

"Thank you so much again, Fritzie can now go and enjoy her vacation." I said happily, walking with her to the gate.

"Where, might I ask, are you going?" Paul asked sheepishly. Fritzie was twenty minutes early for her flight.

Fritzie rolled her eyes up to the ceiling. She didn't know how to put it without creating a large stir. "Visiting some cool friends." she said confidently. Paul smiled.

"Thank you and enjoy your flight, ma'am." he said, and walked off to back where the office was. The receptionist lady still gave Fritzie a stupid look. Fritzie blew her a raspberry, much against my will, and walked over to gate 15A.

Before I let her through the gate, I had to ask her one final time, "Are you sure you want to go with this?"

Fritzie jumped up and gave me a hug, and a few dog kisses. Why here?

"I'll be alright, I promise. Better get going, big brother, I'm sure you want another nap before work today!" she said cheerily, checking her pockets to make sure that everything was there. I handed her the plane ticket and the the certification that she sort of 'gave to me' when she hugged me.

"Don't you dare forget to call me. I am going to call you when I get on break from work if you don't! I kind of figured last minute that you probably wont arrive by the time I go to work today!" I called to her, as she began walking through the gate.

"Alright, I love ya, see you in a week and a half!" she called back, getting herself ready to board.

She was finally free to go to meet a few new friends... she hoped.

When she finally boarded the plane and got comfortable; the seats were first class, she took the cotton balls out of her ears briefly and stuck the MP3 player in her ears. She then turned the volume on really low and began drifting off to the sound of Metallica's song 'Orion.'


	4. Chapter 3: The Morning Of

**As promised, here's Chapter 3. This one is a bit more of what you guys are probably looking for.**

**And anyways, thank you to the three people who have left reviews for my story so far, and everyone who has read so far for reading. The more feedback I get, the more tempted I will be to write the sequel, so as usual, I love reviews!**

**Since this chapter is again, short, I may release Chapter 4 tonight, but there are a few depending factors tonight. I have a story cover to draw, and I have to go into work on my own free time to get a little training in and get my employee of the month stuff. So if I have a mailbox full of reviews when I get back to it, count on Chapter 4 to be released later tonight.**

**Anyways, cheers, enjoy the next chapter. **

-Narf

**----------------------Chapter 3: The Morning Of---------------------**

Dave looked sleepily over at the Alarm clock. 7:59. He rolled over and plopped his head into another pillow. He knew he had to get up at eight this morning, but he didn't quite want to. Sleeping sounded too nice right about-

"Beep beep beep beep beep!" alerted the alarm clock. He had a restful night's sleep, but he wanted to get some more. The boys could be such trouble sometimes, so he just wanted to rest the whole day off. He almost drifted back off to sleep, when he realized that today was the first day of memorial day _week_ off for the boys.

He guessed he better make some breakfast for the boys then. He wanted them to be bright and ready for the day ahead.

He hadn't forgotten about the competition. After he finished writing the song, which he got it with a day to spare, he began right away about preparing for the competition... but not without Alvin's pressure.

Though after a few weeks into the contest, Simon and Alvin almost completely forgotten about it already. Theodore on the other hand, although quiet, never forget about it. It almost became his and Dave's secret surprise.

He got up, and began preparing a nice hearty breakfast for the boys; bacon and eggs, blueberry toast, and some fruit.

"Morning Dave." Theodore said, rounding the corner. He didn't sound very tired at all.

"Why, morning Theodore. I'm a little surprised to see you up so early." Dave said, looking cheerfully at the little green clad chipmunk. Theodore smiled and looked into Dave's eyes.

"Hehe," he giggled, "I couldn't sleep much since about seven this morning. I just couldn't help it, I'm excited!"

Dave went back to scrambling the eggs. Inside his heart, he knew that Theodore would be the one most excited about the visit, but he was expecting Alvin to be the one raving about it. In fact, he was expecting Alvin to wake him up, and not his alarm clock.

"Where's Alvin and Simon?"

"Oh, they're still sleeping. Want me to wake them up?" Theodore asked, heading out of the kitchen.

"Yes, please. If you don't mind of course." Dave said.

Theodore took a few steps, but then turned around and poked his head around the corner. "Oh, and Dave, don't remind them about today, I want it to be a surprise if they forgotten." Dave laughed a little and nodded.

Theodore walked up the stairs. He quietly opened the door, and shook Simon awake gently. He knew Simon was easier to wake up, and it would at least save some of the fury of having Alvin wake up.

"Hum, wha?" Simon said sleepily, rubbing his eyes.

"Wake up, Simon, Dave's making breakfast." he said cheerily. He sat down on the edge of Simon's bed and handed him his large oval glasses. Simon blinked for a second.

"You're eager about something today." Simon said in mid yawn. "What are you so hopped up about?"

"Why not? It's a nice day outside." Theodore said, getting off the bed.

Now Simon knew in the back of his mind that Theodore was the one that would sleep the latest of the three. Alvin usually spend much of the five minutes or so arguing, but Theodore would fall back asleep right through the argument and Simon would have to wake him up again. Something was itching at Theodore but he didn't want to say it. He rolled his eyes, and threw on his blue t-shirt and a pair of navy blue jeans. It was a little too early to put his over-sized blue turtle-neck sweater.

Theodore on the other hand though was fully dressed. He was wearing a green tee shirt and a pair of dull green shorts underneath his wider but shorter green turtle-neck.

Simon then began rubbing Alvin awake. At first Alvin swatted Simon's hand away, but then he began groaning a little bit.

"Aww come on, it's Saturday, can't you give me some common decency to sleep?" Alvin groaned. Theodore and Simon rolled their eyes.

"I wanted to sleep a little late too, but Theodore woke me up. Apparently, Dave is making us breakfast right now too, so something's up." Simon replied sternly. Theodore giggled a little bit.

Alvin rolled over to take a look at the clock next to his night stand. He groaned even louder.

"It's not even nine! Come on!" Alvin said groggily. He didn't like being awakened this early on a Saturday. The could have at least waited until nine or something.

"Fellas! Breakfast is ready!" Dave called from downstairs. The room began to fill with the aroma of bacon and blueberries.

Theodore looked out the door wide-eyed. The house smelled absolutely great. Normally, this would be his call out of bed in the morning, but he didn't realize that the house smelled _this_ good. He quickly shot a look at Alvin before he ran down the steps. If a little friendly competition would work to get Alvin out of bed in a huff, it was worth a try.

"Alvin, if you don't come downstairs in the next five minutes, I'll eat your breakfast!" he said giggling, almost running down the steps towards the kitchen.

Alvin stared out the door to their room with a wounded expression. He could actually believe Theodore would eat his breakfast. He hurriedly threw on his signature red turtle-neck with the huge letter 'A' on it and ran down the stairs faster than Simon could figure out what was going on.

When Dave saw Alvin run down the stairs in a huff and laughed. He knew Theodore wouldn't eat Alvin's breakfast, today was too good of a day to do that. He wasn't particularly mad at Alvin anyways.

"What's so funny?" Alvin asked, looking around the kitchen dumbly. Theodore laughing too.

"What, did you actually think I would eat your breakfast Alvin?" Theodore said in between laughs. Simon casually walked past Alvin and sat at the table. Alvin balled up a fist.

"Yes." Alvin said dryly, unclenching his fist and taking a seat at the table. Simon chuckled a little bit too. Theodore had as much food as both Alvin and Simon combined.

"Easy now, boys, you have a pretty big day ahead of you... well... at least Theodore does anyways." Dave said cheerfully, serving the boys and then taking a seat at the table.

Alvin and Simon couldn't quite figure out what Dave meant by 'big day' but they knew Dave was fishing up something. Alvin looked at Simon and raised an eyebrow. Simon just shrugged.

"What's so special about today, if you don't mind me asking." Simon asked, confused. Theodore's eyes narrowed a little bit. Simon forgot completely, and he was not about to let him know either. This would be his surprise then.

Alvin kind of nodded in agreeance. "Yeah, Dave, really. Why breakfast at nine in the morning?"

Theodore began laughing again. He was pretty convinced both of them forgot. "Well, I'm going to be doing a little bit of baking with Eleanor today, and Dave was making breakfast, so I woke you guys up. I don't know what Dave's thinking though," he said cheerfully. He loved baking with Eleanor. Simon and Alvin on the other hand, dropped their heads to the table. Theodore blinked.

"Fine, what are you making us do?" Alvin grumbled. Dave began laughing again.

"What's wrong with making a nice breakfast for you guys, its a nice day outside." Dave replied, obviously not happy with the boy's responses. They really must have forgotten about the competition.

"I'd rather be studying that go outside." Simon said as a matter of factly, digging into his scrambled eggs with bacon. The boys weren't much of meat eaters, but they still did eat it from time to time.

"And I would rather be sleeping right now!" Alvin grumbled, furiously wolfing down his food trying to get out of the kitchen and back upstairs. If he couldn't fall back asleep, he could toy around with his Nintendo DS for a while until later on in the afternoon, when Simon was gone with his studies and Theodore was done cooking.

Theodore sighed a little bit. Today was starting off just being a normal day, even though it was full of pleasant surprises later.

When everyone was done finishing their meal, Simon immediately went for his computer, and Alvin went upstairs and fumbled around for his hat. He put it on, and then began searching his room for his DS. Theodore on the other hand stayed downstairs, cheerful looking until Alvin and Simon were gone, then he sighed pretty loudly. Dave looked at Theodore worriedly.

"Not what you were hoping for eh?" he asked, giving Theodore a hug. Theodore blushed a little bit.

"In my mind, it was what I hoped for, but in my heart... no." Theodore said glumly.

"I can tell them if you want." Dave interjected, getting ready to go upstairs.

"No thanks, Dave. I still want this to be a surprise. Do you have an idea on who could have won?" Theodore asked shyly.

Dave thought for a second. He had a random name generator pick out the winner out of all of the contest entries. Liberty Records, the company where he wrote his songs to, offered to file the contestants names... well, at least a handful of them. Cheaply stated, they dumped all of the entry forms into a large room, took five handfuls of names, and shredded the rest. Then they filed all the names that they picked out and put it into a computer and it selected it from there. Who would want to go sort out a few hundred thousand entries anyways?

He remembered a name very vaguely. It sounded European of some sort, but the winner lived in Florida, so he figured that the contestant was at least living in the states. He didn't bother to buy a second ticket, if the entry would have had a guardian signature, then he would have mailed two tickets, but since the entrant signed the name themselves, he figured that the person was rather mature. Or if the entrant was a kid, that they would realize their mistake and buy the ticket. He would pay for it in full after the flight here, but they couldn't have known that. He realized after he mailed it that he forgot to put a RSVP phone number. How dumb of him. He thought about it, but the only detail he could remember was that the winner lived in Florida.

"No, sorry Theodore. I only seen the winner's name for about two minutes, I couldn't have remembered it this long. I'm sure you'll get along with whoever it is just fine." Dave said reassuringly, patting Theodore on the back before Theodore ventured back upstairs.

"I hope so." Theodore said shyly, walking to the stairs. Instead of going up them though, he walked into the living room and began watching some of the latest cartoons on TV.


	5. Chapter 4: Where's Eleanor?

**As promised, here is Chapter 4. Glad to see you changed your opinion DiceRox09. I promise you _this_ chapter the story will be a bit more... a surprise.**

**As usual, I love reviews, so reviews are welcome. I'd love to hear your opinions and or criticisms. Oh, and I will be releasing the cover to this story tomorrow. (Grins)**

**I will release Chapter 5 tomorrow. As for now, cheers! Enjoy the next chapter.**

-Narf

**---------------------Chapter 4: Where's Eleanor?--------------------**

Theodore finally finished one of his two masterpieces he was going to have ready that day. It was already nearly one o'clock that afternoon. He had just gotten done baking a large tray of cookies. Of course, Theodore had already begun plans to hide the vast majority of the cookies. He knew that Alvin would eat most of the cookies before the day was over if he didn't, so he had a general idea on where to hide them. Theodore had an excellent ability to hide food and find it when needed.

Simon was still upstairs doing some research and finishing up his history project. He liked the idea of getting his homework done early so that he could take the rest of the week off and do some relaxing... well... research.

Alvin was busy deep in thought. He got bored of his DS around eleven that morning, and was thinking of some schemes for attention, or just for kicks. With both of his brothers occupied and neither of them willing to stop what they were doing if the world depending on it, he kept discarding one idea after another. He did like SOME feedback from his brothers, but he didn't want his brothers to steal the show either, so he kept their input minimal.

As Dave entered the kitchen, he noticed that Theodore was standing on the counter top trying to hide the covered plate of cookies on top of one of the cabinets.

"Here, let me help you with that." Dave said, standing on one of the kitchen chairs and pushing the plate well hidden above the cabinet. "Hiding these from Alvin I see."

"Yeah, knowing him, he'll eat them all before we even get to meet the mystery guest." Theodore said quietly, sitting down then sliding off the counter top. Theodore was smart enough to leave a few cookies on the table for (dominantly) Alvin so that Alvin wouldn't suspect that Theodore made too much. He took a cookie and nibbled on it, knowing that whatever cookies were here were going to be eaten by Alvin as soon as he came down. He looked at the cookie with a touch of disappointment.

"Needed a little more salt." He said, but then shrugged and finished the cookie off fairly quickly.

Dave took a cookie too, and took a fair sized bite. Normally, Dave stayed away from sweet things, but Theodore and Eleanor's baking was an exception to the rule. Dave didn't notice anything wrong with the cookies at all.

"They're absolutely fine, Theodore, don't trouble yourself. You are your own worst critic." Dave said, taking another moderate sized bite.

Theodore giggled. "I know, Dave. They're still good though. Nobody else would care, especially not-"

Alvin suddenly appeared out of nowhere and ambushed the tray of cookies on the table.

"...Alvin." Theodore said dryly, finishing his sentence.

"Right on cue." said Dave, rolling his eyes.

After Alvin wolfed down the rest of the tray almost as suddenly as he appeared, Alvin looked up at the ceiling and put his hand to his mouth.

"Needed a little more salt, Theodore." Alvin interjected, and went back upstairs. Theodore growled a little bit. Dave blinked dumbly and sighed.

"Or... Alvin is." Dave said with a sigh. Alvin had no idea what was going on at all today, did he?

Theodore began fumbling around for more flour, muffin mix, and frosting. He was supposed to bake cupcakes with Eleanor, Eleanor was waiting to do this with him all week. He was a little disappointed to find out though, that he used up the rest of the flour on the cookies, and the muffin mix had a huge hole in the bottom of the box.

"Hey, Dave?" Theodore said, pulling the box of muffin mix out of the cupboard and tilted the box. "We're out of muffin mix, and I used up the last of the flour. I'm sorry, I thought I had another bag."

"It's okay Theodore, I'll run off to the store and get some for you in just a moment. Besides, I need to go grocery shopping anyways. I just wanted to wait a little bit-"

"You don't have to Dave, really-"

"Nah, it's okay. Don't worry about it, Ill go get some, as well as Alvin a bag of pizza rolls and some other party food. Will you be alright if I go to the store now?"

"Thank you, Dave!" Theodore said happily, then the phone rang.

**"I got it!"** Alvin yelled from upstairs. Simon flinched a little bit and spun around to look at Alvin.

"You don't have to yell so loud." Simon groaned. Alvin rolled his eyes.

"Just go back to what you were doing, Simon." Alvin said bluntly, picking up the cordless phone in their room. "Hello?"

"Oh, hi Alvin, is Theodore there?" a female chipmunk's voice said over the phone. It sounded very bubbly and sweet. Alvin rolled his eyes and got up off the bed.

"Yeah, just a second Eleanor." Alvin grumbled. He took the phone out of his ear and trudged downstairs. He rounded the corner and blatantly shoved the phone at Theodore. "For you, sire." he said sarcastically, and trudged back upstairs. He wasn't getting very far with his plotting and was utterly bored.

"H-hello?" Theodore said shyly into the phone.

"Hi Theodore!" Eleanor said happily into the phone.

"Be right back! I'm going grocery shopping! All me if it's an _emergency only_." Dave called out loud, briskly getting his coat on and walking out the door. He wanted to make it back home as fast as he could.

"What's going on?" Eleanor asked, slightly concerned.

"Oh, nothing. Dave's going food shopping. Ran out of flour and muffin mix." Theodore said shyly. "Anyways," he said, perking up a bit, "I've been waiting for you to call me all day! Come on, even if we don't have muffin mix, we can still prepare for the little surprise I told you about."

Eleanor looked around her room. Her room was empty, Miss Miller took Brittany and Jeanette out shopping, so they were nowhere in sight. "You mean the mystery guest?" she asked excitedly, twirling one of her blond pigtails. She loved meeting new people too.

"Yeah!"

"Okay, let me get ready and I'll be over in about twenty minutes." she said into the phone. She was a touch concerned about the baking the cupcakes. Normally when Dave went shopping, he was always gone for way longer than any of them wanted.

"Alright cool, see you soon!" Theodore giggled into the phone. He began cleaning up the kitchen, but deciding to leave the empty muffin mix box on the counter top. Theodore looked into the refrigerator. It was beginning to clutter up with leftovers. He wrinkled his nose at the sight of them, and pulled out a ripe red apple. He wanted something satisfying to nibble on.

* * *

Eleanor looked around the room. Miss Miller didn't come home yet, and she certainly didn't want to ask for a ride, so she started walking to the Seville's house. 

About halfway into the walk though, she began wondering if she should go get the muffin mix and the flour instead.

She looked around the neighborhood. After a little bit of thought, she decided to head in the opposite direction instead. She figured that Theodore wouldn't mind if she did him the favor. She walked inside the house, and quickly grabbed her purse. She would probably be back before Dave would even come close to getting home. It didn't occur to her to call Theodore before she left. She remembered a convenience store a ways down the business district, not the one around the corner but a bit further away, that sold both muffin mix and flour, so she headed out for there.

Just after she left, she took a road that she normally didn't take. It was somewhat of a shortcut to the business district. She didn't even notice Miss Miller 'driving' wildly a block away back home, and no one seemed to notice her either.

Close to the first convenience store, she began skipping happily towards the main road. She knew to be extra careful about going about in town.

What she didn't notice, or really care about, was the dog that walked past her on the other side of the street.

* * *

After about twenty minutes of waiting, Theodore began pacing eagerly in the kitchen. He was excited that Eleanor was coming over yes, but he couldn't handle the waiting either. 

He heard a noise from outside the house. He jumped up immediately and opened up the door, expecting anything, but was disappointed when it was just the neighbors across the street arriving home from whatever they were doing. He closed the door feeling a little sad.

While he was waiting for Dave to come home, he discovered a recipe he wrote down over the course of the week. He wanted to show Eleanor his new favorite cupcake recipe. He normally kept these recipes as a secret to everyone, except Dave perhaps, but Eleanor was something special. She shared the same love for baking, and well, cooking and eating in general as him.

As he had just about given up hope, he heard a fast knock at the door. It made his heart skip a beat. "Coming!" he squeaked out happily, racing for the front door as fast as his little body could take him.

When he opened the door though, his huge smile almost instantly turned into a disappointed look. A ginger haired chipmunk stood before him. She had a big ponytail towards the top back of her head. It could only mean one thing.

Brittany wanted to nag Alvin for something.

"Oh, hey Brittany." Theodore said disappointedly. "What brings you here?"

Brittany yawned unenthusiastically and rolled her eyes. Theodore never was exactly fond of her, but he was too shy to say it. She couldn't quite understand what was not to love about her dazzling personality. She was Eleanor's older sister. She crossed her arms.

"Is Eleanor here? I needed to tell her something, but I can't seem to find her, so I assumed that she was here with you. She wouldn't stop gabbing about baking with you all week!" Brittany said sarcastically, trying to peer around Theodore into the kitchen. Theodore's face dropped even more.

"No. I've been waiting for her for a half an hour, I kind of assumed that she was with you then." Theodore said worriedly, and slightly annoyed. Brittany sometimes had a way of getting on Theodore's nerves, despite how delightfully easygoing he was.

Alvin got annoyed very quickly. He could hear the fuss starting downstairs but he didn't know what it was about. He could tell it was Brittany's voice. He was too busy marveling at his latest scheme to really pay attention to anything that happened since he swiped that tray of cookies. There seemed to be a slight bit of arguing downstairs, so Alvin decided to get in on the action. He wasn't exactly satisfied with a possible uproar happening downstairs where it wasn't **him** that started it.

He bounced up off the bed and Adjusted his cap and glared at Simon. Simon was _still_ sitting in front of the computer.

'Nerd.' he thought to himself. He blew a raspberry at Simon, and laughed inside his head. When it was quite obvious that Simon didn't even notice that, he just waived it off and decided to get in on the fray downstairs.

He walked down the stairs and looked out the front door to see what the heck was going on. Brittany and Theodore both had a combination of worried and annoyed looks.

Alvin raised an eyebrow. 'Theodore annoyed? That can't be good. He was so cheerful this morning.' He then remembered though that Brittany was there, and even Theodore can be annoyed by Brittany.

"Erm, hi Brittany." he said, waving sheepishly and staring into the kitchen. He noticed the muffin mix box out on the counter top. "What's going on?"

Brittany just rolled her eyes and pushed herself into the house uninvited.

"Eleanor's missing or something." She said impatiently, making her way into the kitchen and sitting down in the nearest chair. She couldn't help but smell the aroma of fresh baked cookies, but frowned to find out that there were none for her.

"I'm starved. Alvin, be a gentleman and fetch me something?" she asked, turning around and planting a cheesy smile on her face.

Alvin looked down at his feet and pointed at himself. "Me!? _Theodore_ is the chef around here, ask _him_!" he chortled, folding his arms and leaning into the kitchen doorway. Theodore looked worriedly and started staring off into space. Alvin shook his head and began muttering incomprehensibly to himself, before making his way to the fridge. He searched around, and found a bowl of... meatloaf was it?

'What in the world _is_ this stuff?' he thought to himself, examining the mystery slop. He shrugged.

"Where and when did you last see her?" Alvin asked puzzlingly, handing Brittany the bowl of leftovers.

Brittany shrugged. "At home. Jeanette and I went out shopping for a while but when I came back she was gone. I thought she was here so-" she said, but then suddenly stopped. She stared at the bowl of leftovers, then glared back at Alvin.

"Ew! What is this?! Are you _trying_ to to poison me?!" she growled, pushing the bowl back at Alvin and folding her arms crossly. She began to look more irritated than she was when he first saw her today.

"Well, you 'oh so kindly' demanded me to feed you." he said sarcastically, putting the bowl of leftovers back into the fridge. "You didn't say what though." he said with a smirk and pulling out a red apple out of the fridge. "Like I said, Theodore is the chef. If you want something good, you're going to have to ask him."

Alvin grinned and tossed the red apple into the air. He caught it with the other hand, and ripped a huge bite into it.

Brittany sat back further, nonchalantly in the seat, but then noticed Alvin eating the apple. She jumped out of the seat in anger

"Wow, so you **do** have actual food and don't offer me any? How rude!" she said prudently, folding her arms. She then casually walked into the living room.

"And for your information, Alvin," she continued rattling, "I don't need to _ask_ anyone to cook for me. A rock star gets what she wants without asking. Humph!"

And with that, she flopped carelessly onto the couch.

Alvin shook his head. "A rock star shouldn't also have to get another rock star her food!" he yelled out, looking over at Theodore, who was still off in his daze of sorts.

'God, she can be such a hothead sometimes. Walk into my house without even asking and demanding me for food! She had it coming, but can she take a joke? NOoooOoo. Better yet, can't anyone take a joke nowadays?' he thought annoyingly to himself and muttering incomprehensibly again before getting another apple out of the fridge. If Brittany would have just looked in the fridge she would have found there was half a bag of apples in there.

He rounded the corner and reluctantly tossed Brittany the apple. She caught it with ease, which made him sigh in relief a little bit because he didn't want to get a lashing now.

Brittany took a small bite into the apple.

He looked over at Theodore again. Now he was staring at the ceiling, deep in thought. If he was so sure, he would probably say that he was thinking about Eleanor, but he didn't know. With his baby brother, he could be thinking about other things, like pies, or waffles, or heck- any kind of food.

"So she was gone when you came home today, eh?" he said curiously, beginning to think. "I know that Theodore was excited about doing something with Eleanor today... somewhere along the lines of baking. By the look of the muffin mix box out, it's probably cupcakes. I didn't really pay much attention to it, Theodore is always overly excited with it comes to baking with Eleanor. He was wide awake particularly early this morning though," he added, thinking out loud and talking to Brittany at the same time.

Since Brittany was quite satisfied now, she decided to listen to what Alvin had to say. She nodded, but still couldn't explain where her sister went.

He didn't quite understand where Eleanor could have gone though. The Chipettes, thats what the female chipmunks were called, only live three blocks away, it's not like Eleanor could get lost.

Then a scheme came into his mind. He gasped, in his false drama queen tone of voice. Theodore was off in dreamland, so he wouldn't even notice how botched it sounded. "Do you think Eleanor got... _lost_???"

"Lost? Eleanor has been over here a hundred times, there's no way she could have gotten- wait, you're bored aren't you?" she asked dryly. Alvin couldn't hide the smug look showing up on his face. He nodded.

"Maybe! That is such a possibility. You know Eleanor with directions, she's always getting lost!" Brittany called out a little louder. She faked a cough, then took another bite into the apple. She stared at her body in slight amazement. With such a horrible diet that didn't involve anything with _real_ fruit, she wondered how she stayed in such great shape.

"Since Eleanor is... 'lost...' what'll we do now?" Brittany asked curiously.

"We snap Theodore out of this daze. Let's make it sound convincing." Alvin said, winking over at Brittany.

At first, he softly kicked Theodore. He didn't react to that. He didn't want to hurt Theodore though, so he had to figure out another way to do it.

He immediately jumped out in front of Theodore and yelled out "**Wake up!**"

Theodore immediately spun his head from side to side wondering what the heck was going on. Brittany coughed up a bite of apple that she took.

"**Alvin!**" Simon yelled out from upstairs. "Could you knock it **off**?!"

Alvin just ignored Simon and casually leaned on Theodore's shoulder. "So, what are you thinking about, buddy?" Alvin asked with a smug look on his face. It made Theodore a little uncomfortable. He noticed the scuff marks on his sweater where Alvin kicked him and tensed up slightly. He was about to yell at Alvin for bothering him, but then he realized he must have dazed off in the middle of his conversation with Brittany. He ran over to Brittany, almost making Alvin lose balance and fall over.

"I'm sorry Brittany, I have some things on my mind right now, have you seen... Eleanor?"

Alvin began jumping up and down and waving his hands in his air. "Hello, earth to Theodore, do I like, not exist in your little fantasy world!?" he said sarcastically, finishing off the rest of the apple he was eating. Theodore just looked over his shoulder than returned his attention to Brittany.

'And I'm the jerk around here.' Alvin thought to himself, folding his arms.

"As for Eleanor, while you were off in your own little dream, Brittany came over here looking for Eleanor because she thought that Eleanor was here. But obviously, she isn't, so we are trying to come up with a plan to look for her."

Theodore looked over at Alvin and then the open front door. It was his problem that Eleanor wasn't here, not Brittany's and _certainly_ not Alvin's so he ran out the door impulsively and shut the door before Alvin and Brittany could figure out what just happened.

He began looking up and down the street. He saw a car coming far down the block, but it was moving pretty slow, so he figured he had plenty of time to step into the road to see if he could see down the block a little it.

"Eleanor!" he yelled out, looking frantically around in front of his house. He ran for the road and looked down the sidewalk. He didn't see anyone in particular. He felt his foot slip slightly. "Whooa" he said, teetering off balance and into the road. Taking a few steps forward, he looked both directions before spinning around and getting ready to walk back towards the curb. He knew damn straight not to stay in the road unless he was sure there were no cars around.

Alvin looked out the window briefly, he saw his brother, getting dangerously close to the street, and even watched him stumble into the street, but he didn't see the car flying towards him.

As Theodore spun around though to get back onto the sidewalk, he saw a pair of headlights approaching on him fast. He stopped for a second, he didn't quite know how to react, and slightly panicked. He turned around, facing in front of the house, holding an arm out in front of the car and shielding his eyes. He let out a yell for help instinctively, but knew that it wasn't much help.

And within the next moment, lights out.

* * *

**A/N: For those of you who might be in tune with the chipmunk fanfictions around here, this is NOT based Neptune's Ocean, for those who are familiar with it. Yes, it turns out Neptune's Ocean has some of an influence on the story, however this was based off of a role-play instead. The role-player decided to use that as an evasive maneuver to stop role-playing, and the person just so happened to be the Theodore. Coincidence? Yes, pointly.**

**Want to know what happens next? Tune in _tomorrow_ for Chapter 5, called "One Hell of an Arrival." :P**


	6. Chapter 5: One Hell of an Arrival

**Thanks so far for all the feedback, Nikki and Dice. :P Something tells me you kind of guessed what would happen in this chapter, didn't you Nikki:P**

**This chapter introduces the first song of the story, which much to my dismay... it doesn't display links. Foo! So the first song's link is going to be on my profile. As I said in the prologue, read ahead if you are a slow reader if you have to, and open the link in a new tab or window when you are ready to listen to the song. ****As I said, what I wrote makes more sense with music because it acts almost as if it were a music video if you understand what I mean, so I advise listening to the music as you read. It's not necessary, but it makes more sense.**

**Anyways, as usual, I love reviews, and guests can review too. The more reviews I get, the more tempted I am to write a much darker but also just as comical sequel. Review, review, review!**

**Cheers and enjoy the chapter! **

-Narf

**-----------------Chapter 5: One Hell of an Arrival------------------**

Fritzie received a lot of flack when she first arrived in Los Angeles at the airport, but this time, armed with the official documentation, her exit was a breeze.

The public bus route made a stop directly in front of the airport, and there was a bus conveniently waiting out front. She got on the bus, looking quite fearfully at the bus driver. He reminded her of Jack Black sort of.

Anyways, the bus driver was very nice. He thought it was amazing to have some 'magical talking dog' on the bus, and found it to be quite a good conversation. So good, in fact, that the bus driver seemed to ignore the various stops along the way to have an uninterrupted chat with her. He rattled off about life in Hollywood, meeting famous celebrities, and how lenient his boss was.

"So where are ya goin' exactly, sweetie?" he asked in a gruff voice. "I know many a celebrity around here, so if you want to get dropped off by one, I'll be happy to oblige, if you are just here for touring."

Fritzie rolled her eyes up in thought. She kind of liked the idea of getting a close to direct stop off to where she was going.

"Now, I kind of don't want to go there directly, but if there is a business district nearby there, do you think you could drop me off near where The Chipmunks live?"

"Sure thing! Those kids are crazy fun. Probably the best group of kids I had on here if I say so myself. Mind Alvin, of course. He's cool, but you have to keep yer' eye on him."

Fritzie laughed. "So they say."

"So, what business do you have with them, if yer don't mind me askin' ya." he asked, continuing on his set course to Hollywood Hills.

"Oh, hehe, it's kind of a funny story..." Fritzie replied.

"Go on, I bet ya I can believe yer' word on it."

"Well, I kind of won this contest to where I could visit them for a week." Fritzie said shyly, almost expecting the guy to seize her stuff.

"Don't be alarmed. I love meh' job, I wouldn't do anything to upset yah, missey." the guy said reassuringly, giving Fritzie a thumbs up. "Wow, that sounds like yer got yourself something exciting der, ya dig?"

"Yeah, it was totally unexpected. You would think, nah, it's impossible to win these contests... either that or else they're scams or something, ya know? But the funny thing is, there was no hassles, no nothing. I kind of wished that they written a phone number down though when they mailed it. My big brother was kinda worried about me."

"Big brother eh? He a cool dog like yerself?"

"Nah," she giggled, "he's human, but he's the best caretaker I could ever ask for. He taught me so much, and unconditionally cares for me."

"Aww, I can believe that, yer' a very nice lady. Damn shame people don't respect animals much, but you're a superstar in the making. All yeh need to do is be at the right place at the right time and do the right thing. Like me for example. I got a job as a bus driver, and now look at me. I'm meeting all these celebrities left and right and some of them even have a make great talkin' to, yah digg?"

Fritzie thought about the right place at the right time bit. She felt as if she was there now, talking to this eccentric guy driving a bus. She never felt so social with a human other than me or any of my friends.

"Yeh, I digg." Fritzie said smoothly. The bus began to grind to a halt. She looked out the window. She appeared to be in some sort of business district.

"Well, this be yer' stop, Hollywood Hills, the business district. Dem boys don't live too far away now. If ya ask anyone kindly around here for directions, I'm sure dey'll give it to yer." he said as Fritzie began to get up. "Yer' sure you don't want me to take yah all duh way?"

"Thank you, but this will do. I want to do a little window shopping and get a soda anyways." She said, pulling out her wallet and pulling out a ten dollar bill. "Keep the change, oh, and by the way, what's your name?"

"Calven'" he said cheerily, looking at the ten dollar bill graciously.

"Calvin, eh? Okay, my name is Fritzie, pleased to meet yah, dude." she said, giving Calvin a firm handshake. "Take care!"

"Yah too, hun!" he said, and began pulling off.

Fritzie giggled. Despite the fact that she liked him, she couldn't imagine pulling up there in a public bus, that was just a little unorthodox. She figured walking would be a more suited impression.

A worry began etching in her mind though, when she started walking down the busy sidewalk. What if their caretaker, Dave, wasn't as acceptant about her being a dog like Calvin was? She looked puzzlingly up at the people that she walked past. Some of them would double take, one of them even freaked out. She roughed the fur on the top of her head up and folded her arms crossly.

Fritzie looked into the stores. There were various shops along the way, fancy designer clothes, an Italian buffet, a Chinese buffet, a pet store, and so much more. The pet store was incredibly tempting, especially when one of the customers squeaked one of the toys. She may be a unique dog, but she was still a dog, she _loved_ squeaky toys.

It didn't take long for Fritzie to become irritated though. Despite a cheerful ride to where she got dropped off, she wasn't exactly in the mood for people's rudeness and ignorance.

"Git outta here dog!"

"Mommy, that dog looks weird."

"Wow, you can walk like that."

Fritzie put on my MP3 player to drown out some of the crap as she walked into the convenience store. She began fiddling around for a song to play on her way out. When she finally found a song, she put the MP3 player on pause and went to look at her GPS. She blinked dumbly.

All she saw was a mesh work of intricate lines that didn't make any sense to her at all whatsoever. She lightly tapped the screen to see if it was broken. It wasn't. She zoomed in. Now the map was starting to get clearer.

She decided to put off the tracker for just a moment. She went into the store and picked out a bottle of Mountain Dew. She, as casually, as she could, went over to the counter to pay for it.

"I never seen a dog order a soda before." The clerk commented.

"But I bet you've seen a trio of Chipmunks do it. What's it to you that a dog is doing that now too?" Fritzie said snidely, reaching into her wallet and pulling out a five dollar bill.

"Okay, you got me there chief." the clerk said glumly, ringing up the soda. "That will be $1.59."

After she got her change back, she slung the door open furiously and gulped down the bottle as fast as she could. Although it was nowhere near as bad as Florida's climate, it was still rather hot outside, so she needed something refreshing, yet fizzy. Seltzer was gross though.

She fiddled around with my MP3 player again. She decided not to play it, and instead put the MP3 player in her pocket. She had a song pop up in her head, and it began replaying over and over.

* * *

KEY SONG TRACK: PAPA ROACH - "TAKE ME"

_Take me, and let me in,  
Don't break me, and shut me out..._

_So take me, take me, and let me in,  
Don't break me, break me, and shut me out!_

She started walking down the street, zooming in the GPS as much as she could. Ironically enough, she was basically, where she needed to be. She was about four blocks from her destination. Avoiding a dirty look from a passing pedestrian, she began to walk a little more casually, as if she had all the time in the world to get there. She made it from the airport this far without any assistance from me. She felt proud.

_I let my pain on fire,  
And I watched it all burn down.  
Now I'm dancing in the ashes,  
And there's no one else around.  
Cause I wanna be a part of something,  
This is just a story of a broken soul._

Fritzie began head-banging slightly. The song stuck in her head expressed so much about how she felt with the world. She stopped head-banging for a second, realizing what she was doing, and looked at the GPS again.

At this point, the GPS looked very confusing on what path to take. When she zoomed in fully, the fat lines that defined her path didn't look so fat anymore. Suddenly, she felt a little lost.

_As days go by, my heart grows cold,  
I can't seem to let this all pass me by.  
So take me, take me, and let me in,  
Don't break me, break me, and shut me out!_

As she rounded the first corner, she tried making heads or tails out of where she should go, but couldn't. She zoomed out as best she could to figure out a pathway to go. She found one on her own though, and began mentally plotting it out in her head. Then, she noticed an odd spectacle on the other side of the street.

_I'm burning in the heavens,  
And I'm drowning in a hell.  
My soul is in a coma,  
And none of my friends can tell.  
That I'm reaching out and getting nothing...  
This is just a story of a broken soul._

A girlish chipmunk with a long, frilly skirt, a huge tie and two pigtails, skipped down the street on the other side. She seemed to wear a lightish gray outfit, with a touch of green, but she couldn't make out colors well. Her hair was very light though, as was her fur. Fritzie shrugged. She quickened the pace a little bit. She began to think about that girl though. The Chipmunks were guys... could that be their female counterparts that she read briefly about?

_As days go by, my heart grows cold,  
I can't seem to let this all pass me by._

She observed her surroundings slightly. Many of the houses looked all the same. It didn't help much.

_So take me, take me, and let me in,  
Don't break me, break me, and shut me out.  
So take me, take me, and let me in!  
Don't break me, break me, and shut me out!_

Fritzie kicked a rock off of the sidewalk. She didn't know how this was going to work out. Would she be looked at funny there? What if they don't like her? All of a sudden, sort of last minute, she felt a small urge to go home, but was too late for that now. After walking three blocks west, she noticed on the mid zoom that her target was on the screen.

"Alright, Fritzie, you been traveling around Los Angeles for almost two hours now. This is what you came for." she mumbled to herself. "You have finally found what you were looking for.

_Don't shut me out!_

A new wave of confidence swept over her. She began to feel pumped.

_Does anyone around me feel the same.  
Put your fists up and vent your pain.  
Does anyone around me feel the same?  
Put your fists up and vent your pain._

Fritzie raised her fist into the air. She made a vow to herself to not let confusion or panic get the best of her. Not this late into the game. She was ready to accomplish what mom dared her to do, be independent.

_Does anyone around me feel the same?  
Put your fists up and vent your pain!  
Does anyone around me feel the same!?  
Put your fists up, and vent your pain!!_

Fritzie rounded the final corner. She was closing in on her destination. She grinned, ignoring gawking person for a change. She was ready to drown the whole world out now. She looked behind her, and noticed a dark sedan turn the corner from the main road.

_As days go by, my heart grows cold,  
I can't seem to let this all pass me by._

She also noticed an odd figure emerge from one of the houses down the street. She put the GPS in her pocket and tried to figure out what it was doing. He blended in very well with the lawns around here.

_So take me, take me, and let me in,  
Don't break me, break me, and shut me out!  
So take me, take me, and let me in!  
Don't break me, break me, and shut me out!_

As she got closer, she could hear the car begin to speed up from a long distance. She also couldn't help but notice the figure now starting to creep closer to the road. Something inside told her to speed up.

The figure looked frantically around, like it was confused, and started to look around the sidewalk. As she approached, she could make out more details. The figure didn't look human. Could it be one of the chipmunks?

_As days go by... my heart grows cold.  
I can't seem to let this all pass me by!_

Suddenly, one of its feet slipped off the sidewalk, and it stumbled out into the road. She darted a glance behind her and saw the car starting to go way faster than the speed limit, like the guy was distracted.

Without hesitation, or any regard for her clothes, she transformed into a normal dog and began running as fast as she possibly could. With the song close to the end in her head, she took the heat of the moment and led a charge right AT the confused being. The being cried out desperately for help. She leapt out onto the road from about twenty feet away.

Just before impact, she stole a glance at the cowering figure, who turned around as if it was an attempt to run back onto the sidewalk. He was too far out into the road to do that.

She recognized the figure from up close. It was Theodore.

_Take me!_

She smashed, head first, right into Theodore's left leg at a good clip. She thrusted her back feet off the ground and butted him with her back.

_Don't break me!_

Her cell phone clattered out of her pocket when she impacted him. She instinctively snatched it when they landed on the other side, not completely aware of what she was doing. And then, it was lights out.

* * *

**Cross your fingers, I may release Chapter 6 as well later today. The more reviews, the more I will clear away my semi-busy schedule and release the next chapter sometime before 10 PM EDT. **

**Review, review, review:D**


	7. Chapter 6: When Worlds Collide

**Okay, I decided to upload Chapter 6 as well. Thank you for the reviews Nikki, Dice, and Chipmunklovers. Much appreciated. And yes Nikki, I somewhat guessed that you knewsome of whatwas going to happen, and yes Elizabeth, I decided to be nice and upload the next chapter today as well. :D**

**I finally have the cover up for my fanfic on DeviantART. Anyone interested in it, go to my FFN profile and there's a link to my DeviantART name. It happens to be my featured drawing.**

**Anyways, this is finally the start of Fritzie to Chipmunk interaction. You might notice some out of character bits in here, but hey, wouldn't you be stressed out if your little brother was potentially hit by a car? Lol.**

**Anyways, cheers, and please- reviews people. Reviews. I gotten 15 people that read the story in full and I know that there had to be more than three signed users that read my story. I know not all of them, but yeah. The more reviews I get, sequel, yeah.**

**Cheers, enjoy the next chapter!**

-Narf

_(And yes, the chapter title is a play on the song "When Worlds Collide by Powerman 5000. Actually, the song would probably fit in rather well with the chapter, but it's not key to the story at all. If you'd like to, check it out on YouTube. :P)_

**---------------------Chapter 6: When Worlds Collide-----------------**

The force of Fritzie's tackle easily knocked Theodore far out of the car's path. But the tackle certainly wasn't the most graceful save you could ask for. Fritzie jumped out at an off angle, so she had to rebalance her step before she really could get a clear enough shot so that there was at least SOME chance of both of them surviving the ordeal.

Theodore didn't even react to the tackle, he didn't have time to. He hurled two somersaults then hit his head on the curb on the other side of the street, and it knocked him out very quickly.

Fritzie, on the other hand, did more of what you could call a 'ghost knockout.' After tackling Theodore, she doubled up and rolled over her own shoulders. The cell phone opened up in mid air and glinted briefly like it caught a glare off of the sunlight. The cell phone then closed up again, and bounced once off the side of the road before landing in the grass.

Fritzie's head lifted dangerously close to the edge of the wheel. Remarkably, she managed to escape a potentially bitter end there by a few hairs. She did another two rolls, popped up over the curb, gently, and landing softly on the grass.

She instantly morphed back into anthro, perhaps not intentionally, in a disoriented fog. She looked around frantically and noticed her cell phone on the ground. She briskly put the phone in her pocket, then took two steps backwards and fell over unconscious.

The dark green sedan slowed down dramatically beginning with about four seconds before possible impact, and nearly stopped about four hundred feet down the block. But then, instead of doing what normal people would do, check up on the victims, he instead sped off, skidding out and leaving a lot of black smoke before gunning it down the street.

Alvin cringed when he heard the shrill yell for help. He spun around so fast that he nearly decked Brittany one, and he pounded his fist into the door. It hurt a little, but it wasn't anything he wasn't used to.

Simon also heard the cry for help from upstairs. It startled him so badly that he fell out of his chair. To think that Alvin would have the nerve to make Theodore yell like that had to be a pitifully mean joke. He had to study to make up for the A- that he received on yesterday's history test. He stormed off to the bedroom door.

"THEODORE!" Alvin yelled out, finally getting a hold of the doorknob. As soon as he opened the door and take a few steps outside, he began to hear the guy peel out just a little way's down the street.

Simon's expression instantly turned to fear when he heard the guy peel out. The door was wide open and it was a sickening feeling. Figuring that the cry for help had something to do with the screeching tires, all thoughts of studying suddenly just fell out of his mind.

"ALVIN! THEODORE!" Simon yelled out from the stairs, almost tripping over his own feet trying to make it down and out the door as fast as he could.

Fritzie began groaning. She opened her eyes and looked almost dreamily into the sky. It looked like a nice dream so far.

Then the headache hit her something fierce. It all felt like a blur, where was she, how long was she unconscious? She tried to move but couldn't, it felt like her body was a stone.

Through the fog that was clouding up her mind, she could hear people starting to approach. She tried to remember what was the last thing that she remembered.

A full force tackle into something... she couldn't remember what. It felt like she just got out of a whirling top.

After much effort, and what felt like an eternity, she eased herself up into a sitting up position. She noticed a relatively large group of people surrounding her on all sides. She looked to her side. A plump figure was what appeared to be sleeping about a few feet over to her left.

She then remembered exactly what happened. She blinked stupidly over at the street. The car wasn't there. i Possible hit and run /i began clouding her mind. She tried to think back, if anything, it would have been her that was hit by the car. And considering that she only had a huge headache, and wasn't dead, that could mean that it was down to the wire; but she cleared BOTH of them without any injuries... well... at least from the car.

'I must not have been out very long...' she said, observing the already growing crowd. Many of them started staring directly at her.

She looked over to the left again. Theodore appeared to be sleeping. She crawled over as best she could, trying to ignore the fast building crowd, and lightly shook Theodore.

"You okay buddy?" she said, lying back on the ground. A massive dizzy spell began to overtake her. Theodore didn't respond.

Alvin and Simon both furiously pushed their way through the crowd. Brittany ran out the door to follow too, but couldn't quite get through the crowd of neighbors and such.

Simon kneeled down onto the grass and began lightly shaking Theodore. "Theodore... can you hear me...? It's Simon." he said worriedly, his glasses nearly falling off of his face.

Fritzie sat up again. She began rubbing her scalp. Perhaps massaging it would dumb the pain slightly. She must have nailed Theodore right on the shinbone or something, because the most intense pain was in a straight line. She hadn't noticed the other two chipmunks, she was too much in a disoriented fog to really be aware of their presence, or even hear them.

When Simon figured that Theodore was unresponsive, he turned to Alvin. "W-what happened?"

"I don't really know." Alvin said worriedly, but then got a hold of himself and noticed the now stirring dog right by Theodore. He raised an eyebrow. "Why don't you ask the dog?" he said sarcastically.

Fritzie managed to work up a weak glare at Alvin, trying to pinpoint where the sound came from since she still couldn't see very well, however it looked more like a dumb look than a glare.

Simon nearly bit his own lip off. "Stop with the attitude, Alvin! This is not a time for your sarcasm! If you aren't going to help me out, go get Dave!" he barked, getting up and towering over Alvin.

Alvin looked worriedly at Theodore. His comment wasn't exactly right for the moment, but he kind of just shrugged at it. He mentally gave Theodore a hug and started walking towards the house.

"I gotta call him. While you were so busy drowning yourself in the computer, Dave called out saying that he was going food shopping. I bet you didn't even know he yelled bye to us before!"

"Oh Alvin, just hurry up already! Dave would kill us if..." Simon trailed off and began rethinking what he was going to say, "...and for the record, no. I hadn't heard, all my attention was focused on _trying_ to study!" Simon wanted to get the last word in for once, even if Alvin didn't hear the whole sentence completely.

Brittany ran off in the opposite direction towards her house. She ran about half way there, but decided that it would actually be better to stay with Alvin for now.

Simon blinked a little bit, now noticing the dog that was right next to Theodore. He questioned himself why he was about to do this, but he finally decided in his mind that this was the only chance of getting an answer anytime soon. If it didn't work, well, then its the 'stressed out kid' excuse.

"S-sorry. I didn't notice you." he said, stepping in front of Fritzie. "Are you alright? What happened? Is there anything I can do for you?"

Fritzie stared even more dumbly at Simon. She could somewhat see him, but it was all a blur. All she could see was a dark figure in front of her. She began to feel real pressured under the growing crowd. If it was obvious that they weren't going to do anything, "We're okay... sort of." she said weakly, trying to get the crowd to disperse a little bit. "Make them go away, please. They're scaring me." she said, pointing at the crowd of neighbors in a circular like motion.

She was quite amazed that Simon asked her, instead of coming up with a sarcastic answer back at Alvin. Simon was supposed to be the intelligent one, but I guess even stress could get to him. He was only ten after all.

Simon blinked dumbly back. He wasn't exactly expecting a _response_. I mean, he was a talking chipmunk after all, but he only read about talking dogs. He didn't know if it was true or just an urban legend. He nodded and turned around to the crowd. They all seemed to look... menacingly at Fritzie in particular.

"I, uh, could you please give us some space? This crowding isn't very conductive towards their respiration." he mumbled. Simon rolled his eyes when all the neighbors did was give them confused looks. His patience was completely through after about five seconds.

"**THEY'RE FINE, JUST GIVE THEM ROOM TO BREATHE YOU FOOLS! IF YOU ARE JUST GOING TO STAND THERE AND DO NOTHING, GET THE HELL OUT OF OUR FACES!" **Simon shouted out furiously. His face going red through his dull yellow fur. The crowd dispersed quite efficiently, and Simon grinned at himself. He then returned his attention to Theodore to give Theodore another check, attempting to make sure that Theodore didn't have any serious injuries.

He reached down once more, to check Theodore's pulse. There was a pulse, but still no response. He was breathing rather lightly. "Theodore? Theodore, can you hear me? Please?" Simon begged, but Theodore still didn't respond. Simon began to get worried if Theodore went into shock.

Simon turned to Fritzie. "C-could you tell me what happened?" Simon asked worriedly, then pleaded, "please...?"

When she felt the crowd leave, Fritzie sighed. She was very shaky, as a wave of shock now began pouring over her. "I- uh... was on my w-way, over here..." she said, reaching into her pocket for the letter that she received in the mail. With a little bit of effort, she found it. "...and I saw Theodore... uhm... run out in front of a car and f-f-freeze up..." she stammered, trying to hand Simon the letter. Simon didn't look at it, but instead jammed it into his pocket. "...so I tackled him as hard as I-I could to get him..." Fritzie gasped now, her throat was extremely dry. She hadn't noticed it until she became almost out of breath. "...out of harms way."

"Theodore ran out in front of a car?" Simon asked dumbly. He knew it was definitely not like him to just run out in front of a car unless something bad happened to him personally.

"Well... fell into the street... was more like it." she said almost completely out of breath.

She started panting furiously. "Got... water? Throat... dry, much." she said in between breaths.

Simon looked at his own feet. He couldn't believe what just happened. "T-thank you for saving my brother. I..." Simon said, taking his glasses off and cleaning them before putting back on. He didn't want to know what _could_ have happened. "I don't know what we'd do if something... else happened."

Alvin burst out the front door, leaving the door wide open. Apparently, Brittany disappeared, leaving him and Simon alone to deal with this problem... and it angered him no end.

"If you think you can walk over to my place, i-it's the least I can do to thank you." Simon said shakily, noticing Alvin now running out the door. He did one more quick check on Theodore real quick to make sure nothing was broken, so that Alvin and him could move Theodore into the house. All clear.

Fritzie attempted to get up, but the first try got her half way up but then sitting back down again. Not wanting to be a total burden, after a few seconds she tried it again, and successfully managed to get up.

An unparalleled wave of dizziness flooded over her. It blurred her clearing vision dramatically. However, Fritzie didn't want to fall over again, not while she was standing up. She began massaging her scalp furiously.

"Simon! Dave is on his way home now! He literally dropped whatever food was in his hands and made a beeline out the supermarket! He's on his way home right n-" Alvin yelled out, but then stopped.

He almost tripped over his own feet at what he saw. The dog was now standing up on two feet. He rubbed his eyes, and slightly wondered if he went into shock.

'Whoa! That's so cool, I didn't know dogs can do that!' he thought to himself, but before he could comment on it he remembered why he was out here. He ran over to where Theodore was.

"Did he wake up? Is he okay?" Alvin asked worriedly.

Simon sighed in relief when he heard that Dave was on his way home now. Dave would definitely fuss over his children when he returned, but Dave would definitely have a better grip of what to do, even if Simon was extremely bright for his age.

"I uh... don't know." He looked over at Theodore with a sad look on his face. "He's still unresponsive, I think he might have hit his head at some point as he fell. Let's just get him back inside, Dave will know what to do when he gets home.

Fritzie blinked stupidly for a second. She looked over at Alvin, now that her vision was coming back. He had a surprised look on his face, but she couldn't tell what he was surprised about.

Simon stood up, trying to lift Theodore up by himself. He was well aware that he couldn't, he wasn't a very physical or athletic person. "Alvin, you could help-"

"Right on it!" Alvin replied back, not even letting Simon finish his sentence. He picked Theodore up by his legs like a backwards wheelbarrow. He normally could carry Theodore by himself, but he wanted to be careful this time.

Simon looked over at Fritzie as they began crossing the street. There were no cars in sight, so that was a given plus. He looked over at Fritzie, finally giving in to the shock of an actually talking, bipedal dog with them, and not just an urban legend.

"My apologies," Simon paused rather awkwardly, blinking dumbly, "I don't know your... name."

Alvin looked behind him at Simon. "Wow, I was only kidding about talking to the dog, I seriously didn't mean it..." Naturally, Simon would either shrug off Alvin's sarcastic remarks or backlash at him. He didn't expect Simon to actually _do it_.

Fritzie staggered slightly as she began crossing the street. She figured that water might help clear up her head a bit. She looked over at Simon, then Alvin, then back at Simon.

"Fritzie," she whispered out hoarsely. She tried clearing her throat a bit. "My name's Fritzie." she said a little more clearer, it still sounded dry and scratchy.

Alvin was astounded, so surprised that he almost dropped Theodore right out of this arms. Before that could happen though, he gripped much harder onto Theodore's legs, to make sure he didn't fall. When he gripped him though, he felt something... unnatural, on his left leg. It surely wasn't his clothes. He stopped suddenly.

"Simon?" Alvin said wide-eyed. Fritzie became a little startled by the sound of Alvin's voice. Simon grunted irritably. "I think you missed something. Put him down, now, something's wrong."

Fritzie decided to not even wait for getting water from the house. She saw the hose in the front yard, and was perfectly content with drinking from the hose. She stumbled over to the hose, quickly turned it on, then proceeded to let the water roll over her head.

Simon gritted his teeth in anger. "Alvin..." he growled, he wasn't in the mood for an argument.

"I'm serious!" Alvin squeaked.

Simon rolled his eyes and they both gently placed Theodore down. "What? What's wrong now?" Simon said sharply, half in panic, half in irritance.

Alvin took one more look over at Fritzie. She seemed to be enjoying the hose a little too much. He then turned to Theodore and rolled his sweater up a little bit. Trying to figure out what to say, he settled on saying, "This."

Simon studied Theodore's left leg puzzlingly. It i looked /i fine, but when he felt around on it, it certainly didn't feel fine. It was quite swollen, and there was a slight bump in one spot. Through the fur, it was already starting to turn slightly purple. He lightly pressured the bump.

Theodore let out a very soft and quiet moan, but didn't respond again after that. Simon froze in absolute fear. Now, he was supposedly the best of the group to handle stress, but this one made Simon feel way too uncomfortable. Dave was going to absolutely go berserk.

"I... uh... um..." Simon stammered, looking frantically around.

Fritzie sighed happily after her little 'shower' and drink. She was already feeling much better, but when she noticed how Simon started panicking, she froze up in fear. She hoped nothing was seriously wrong.

"... lets get Theodore inside!" Simon said impulsively, running his hands down his face in stress. "At least he'll be as comfortable as it can get until Dave arrives home."

Alvin paused for a second. A whirl of the events happening today were churning in his mind. He began wondering, where the Chipettes were- particularly Eleanor. If Eleanor didn't suddenly vanish, this all could have been prevented.

"Sh-should we call the doctor?" Simon stammered, retrying to get a hold of himself. Both Alvin and Simon lifted Theodore up again, except this time, Alvin picked Theodore up from his thighs instead of his calves.

Fritzie's ears drooped. She knew that calling a doctor meant that there was more to it than just a concussion. "Call a... doctor? Whats... wrong?" she asked in concern.

Her eyes widened a little bit. What was starting off as a great week was turning into a new nightmare that she could NOT have guessed. She started hoping that she could just wake up out of this nightmare and still be on the plane, but the pain in her head was too great. It was sobering her to the point to where that this wasn't _just_ a nightmare.

Considering that she was knocked out when she collided with Theodore, although not immediately, it sounded standard, but she just hoped that there wasn't another surprise hidden in the predicament box of cereal.

Simon thought about Theodore. This was one of the few times where he wished that Theodore wasn't the innocent and lovable butterball that he was. He didn't like the thought of Theodore being in pain. He sighed.

"It's just a precautionary measure. Both you and Theodore were very nearly hit by an oncoming car... its clear that you're still shaken... and Theodore, well..."

Alvin sighed. "Doctor Harris wouldn't believe us if we called. We better let Dave handle this."

Simon sighed. Alvin was right about this one, besides, there wasn't much that Doctor Harris could do here. He decided to wait for Dave to do this himself.

Fritzie didn't like the sound of the last bit of Simon's sentence. She was much more alert now, she just couldn't ignore that. The dizzy spells were almost gone, so she then began to be more concerned about Theodore than herself.

"Its okay, I'll be fine. Give it a few hours and my headache should be gone. It's not me that I'm worried about though, it's him." Fritzie muttered disappointedly. "What's wrong, is he more than just, knocked..." she trailed off, she began wondering what could possibly wrong with Theodore's leg.

And then it hit her.

She felt the resounding straight line of pain on her head. It was from when Fritzie tackled Theodore in the first place. Could she have... done more damage than she thought?

She froze up. She didn't mean to clobber him into oblivion, she only wanted to get him out of harms way. She suddenly started feeling guilty.

"He'll be up and about in no time." Simon said, falsely reassuringly. He didn't know what was going to happen, but he didn't want Fritzie to get into a panic.

Alvin ignored Fritzie for the time being. He began to feel horrible. He wasn't exactly the nicest brother in the world to Theodore lately.

Before he entered the still open front door, he was hoping that Brittany, who was nowhere to be found in the last ten minutes, wasn't waiting on the couch. He didn't have any tolerance for Brittany at all whatsoever. He wasn't blaming her, but he was angry with her all the same. At least, neither of them could pull the plan he was devising while Theodore was off in his own world. He couldn't blame himself for this one, or blame Brittany for that matter.

Much to his surprise, she wasn't there, which was half a relief, and half an annoyance. Did Brittany not care about what just happened? He shook his head and guided Simon to place Theodore down on the couch.

When they put him down, Simon propped Theodore's legs up with a few pillows. He turned to look at Alvin.

"While I elevate his leg, can you get me a few ice packs?" Simon asked Alvin, straining his voice slightly.

"Uh-huh." Alvin mumbled, taking one more look at Theodore before going into the kitchen. Theodore looked absolutely pitiful. He didn't look as coldly knocked out as he was before either. Without any more hesitation, he all but ran to the freezer and grabbed four ice packs.

Simon stole a glance at Fritzie, then reached into his pocket. He remembered her giving him a letter. "I... uh... thank you, again. I'm Simon. Normally I'm not, this nerve racked." he said reaching out his hand. Fritzie shook it reluctantly. "Now, what was this letter about..."

Fritzie started staring off into space. A helpless feeling began to sweep over her. She was sure it was because of the impact, but she wasn't sure of what aspect over it.

Alvin came back into the living room with four ice packs in his hands. He looked over at Simon, who was looking at something in his hand. Alvin set up the four ice packs in various places on Theodore's left leg.

He came back over to Simon, who was staring into the letter oddly. He decided to see what was so weird about it. He recognized the envelope. It was one of Dave's business envelopes. He looked at Fritzie, then the letter, then Simon's even more shocked look. Simon silently handed Alvin the letter with a huge grin, then went to check to see if Alvin put the ice packs in the right places.

Alvin looked into the letter. He dropped it in complete shock. He completely forgotten about the competition, even with all of his nagging in the previous months. When Simon finished adjusting the ice packs, he saw Alvin with the same shocked look as he had.

Had Theodore known all along?

They both looked at Fritzie. Fritzie got an uneasy feeling about their looks.

* * *

**Chapter 7 will be available tomorrow. :P Oh, the suspense.**


	8. Chapter 7: Oddity in Their Living Room

**Again, this chapter has a song in it. As in Chapter 5, as well as any future chapters with songs in it, if you are a really slow reader, I advise reading the story bit first, then listen to the song. The only spoiler I will give is that the song is with a dream sequence, so the dream was actually _purposely_ written to flow with the song. If you read it without listening to the song, it won't make as much sense. The link to the song to this chapter is on my artist profile, "Song 2."**

**Thank you for reviewing my last chapter, Nikki and Dice. Glad you two are enjoying the story so far. As for the rest, I know that not all of the lurker readers are just my friends that I referred the story to. Please, please, please, review. Please. I already know what I think of my story, but I want to know what _you_ think. If I wrote a story just for myself, it would have stayed in my imagination. Give me some feedback! Lol.**

**Anyways, cheers, enjoy the chapter. **

-Narf

**(PS: Review!)**

**--------------Chapter 7: The Oddity in Their Living Room------------**

"The contest!" Alvin and Simon said in unison. Simon looked apologetically at Fritzie.

"Ahh, I'm sorry that you didn't have a warmer welcome, I'm stunned! I completely forgot about the contest! I get a feeling that Theodore didn't though." Simon said giddily. He was about to jump over and hug Fritzie, but he finally got a good look at Fritzie face to face. She didn't look very good at all. Her wet hair in every which direction, looking a little spaced, and a whole lot upset.

"Are you sure you're alright? Perhaps you should sit down a while." Simon offered, pointing to the armchair behind her. She shook her head no. She approached Theodore sightly, then shook her head again. A dizzy spell began washing over her.

Theodore's face twitched slightly, but no one seemed to notice.

"No... I cant... really. I feel horrible."

"I insist, ple-" Simon objected.

"I feel so guilty," she said, interrupting Simon and backing up a little bit. "I didn't mean to hurt him so much! He looks like he's in so much pain right now, I was only trying to get him out of the way!"

"It's alright, seriously. If hadn't done what you did, Theodore might have been in far worse shape. Don't take it on yourself!" Simon said objectively again. He motioned Fritzie to sit down again.

Alvin began thinking about it. What did he miss in those six seconds he was away from the window? He began putting the pieces of the puzzle in his mind. Theodore's leg in bad shape, her headache. What could she have done?

"Please, I reiterate. Sit down, please. We all need to calm down. Congratulations by the way." Simon said calmly, offering Fritzie his hand again.

Alvin thought for a second. If Fritzie got Theodore out of the way... she was mostly untouched.

"You mean... that _you_ broke his leg, and not the car?" Alvin blurted out, a little too much emphasis on the second you. He almost immediately regretted what he said and started approaching Fritzie, waving his hands no. Fritzie took two steps backwards.

"No no no wait, I didn't mean that!" Alvin said pleadingly, but the damage was already done. Fritzie took a third step back, feeling more dizzy than when she first woke up. She tripped over her own feet, and fell backwards onto the living room coffee table.

For Fritzie, it was the second time in a half hour where it was lights out. She smashed the back of her head on the coffee table. Alvin and Simon both cringed at the sound of the crack.

"AAALLVVVINNN!" Simon yelled out viciously. He was about to rip Alvin apart.

"Please, Simon! I didn't mean it! It rolled out of my mouth uncontrollably. I'm sorry!" he said backing up. Simon eased up just slightly, but continued to stare chillingly at Alvin.

Just then, Brittany reappeared. She rushed into the still open door, panting and out of breath. She didn't exactly know what to say. "I'm so sorry, I got lost in the crowd and my own thoughts! What happened? Is he going to be okay!?" she asked worriedly and in a hurry in between breaths. Alvin flash boiled.

**"LOST IN THE CROWD?!? THE CROWD LEFT TEN MINUTES AGO!"** Alvin screamed right into Brittany's face. Brittany looked dumbly at Alvin. Alvin then looked over at Brittany pitifully. Brittany gave Alvin a wounded expression.

"Does it matter how long she was gone?" Simon growled.

"I- I uhm- sorry." Alvin stammered. He really didn't want to lash at Brittany like that, but he was angry that she left. "I'm a bit- stressed... right now. Too many things... cant handle. I don't know why you left, and could have got lost. As for, Theodore... don't know..."

He took his hat off and began banging his head into the wall. Simon continued to glare at him.

"Well, since you're here Brittany, get me a glass of water please." Simon said bitterly to Brittany, not taking his glare off of Alvin.

Alvin's eyes fogged up. He was on the verge of breaking down. He hoped Dave would come soon before something even worse happened, but all the same hoped that Dave didn't so that he could come clean before this whole thing would get him punished for years.

She slowly looked up at Simon and nodded. She felt more wounded than Theodore at that particular moment. Alvin never actually _yelled _at her. But when she went into the kitchen, she began to feel absolutely awful. Who was she to feel hurt for herself. She went and grabbed a glass out of the cabinet and filled it up with tap water. With Alvin as aggravated as that, she began fearing for Theodore. What if he really wasn't alright? It began to make her fear for Eleanor too.

She handed Simon the glass of water without saying a word. Simon grunted a quick thanks.

Alvin stood by the stairs guiltily. He was strictly amazed that Simon only yelled out his name instead of lecturing him. He stole a glance at Theodore, then back over at Fritzie and sighed. He began to approach Fritzie and stood there silently. He only hoped that she would wake up soon.

* * *

**KEY SONG: THE TOADIES - "AWAY"**

Fritzieat first saw nothing but blackness. It was distasteful, considering it was the second time this blackness came on that day. But as the dream started coming on, it started off dull, like a dull gray blur. Nothing was easily recognizable. It felt helpless, dry, and utterly alone.

At first, she ran around in a tight circle. When that didn't do much, she blindly started running in any old direction she felt like going in, but it still felt like she was getting nowhere. She was so lost.

_You say forever...  
And I confess a shiver,  
You say hope...  
I say that's where I'm going._

As figures started walking by, many of them looked depressed and gloomy. Apathetic. No hope. It was sickening, she didn't like it one bit. She hid her face a little bit.

'Is this what my conscience feels like? This isn't me! It needs some brightening up. But how.' She looked to her left and to her right. She begun longing for an escape. The last time she was out, it was pleasant, she was thinking about what she was doing the week before.

_To be in the shade...  
The oldest trees above my head!_

Suddenly, the figures disappeared. A large tree appeared in front of her. It felt welcoming, but it was still all mainly, dull gray blur.

_When I'm away... (I know)  
In my heart, there is a heaven._

She found more use of the tree though, than the people. She sat down at the foot of the tree and began looking as the scenery began pouring in. It was a lavish spectacle, she felt temporarily at peace, instead of that dull feeling that she was getting. But as the scenery melted again, it went back to a lifeless, cold prison that her mind was trying to lock her in.

_If I'm out hunting...  
Come right on in, yeah,  
And even when I'm gone...  
My doors are always open._

Fritzie got up from sitting down. She began looking around in the emptiness, trying to search for an escape. She didn't like this place at all.

'Is this death?' Fritzie asked herself. She felt very familiar with the setup, but couldn't put her fingers on where. She began running in another direction. She tripped over her feet.

_And if I'm asleep?_

_Make sure my blanket covers me! (yeah)_

As she tripped, she noticed the door in front of her. She reached for it, but she opened the door, she fell through a trapdoor underneath her. It was a bright white light. Then she knew exactly where she was.

_When I'm away... (I know)  
In my heart, there is a heaven._

'No! I refuse to do this! Make it stop!' she yelled out at her own conscience. 'I'm too stubborn. I survived this trap once, I can do it again!' she said, remembering what this place was again. She was here when she was near death from the virus she caught, the one that made her the way she was.

_When I'm away...  
When I'm away, (yeh, hey ey yeah).  
_

Fritzie began scrambling as fast as she could upward. She didn't want to head for that brilliant light. It was too easy. Death is an easy way out. She didn't feel ready for it.

_When I'm away.  
When I'm away, (yeh, hey ey yeah).  
_

However, the scrambling only slowed down the drag this time. She looked down again. I resembled what looked like an eye. Furious, and running out of options, she unleashed her claws and sped straight into the center of the eye.

_When I'm away, yeah.  
__When I'm away, yeah hey ey yeah! (Yeah.)_

She let both of her arms out, and just before impacting this eye thing, she furiously clawed and gouged at it.

The blackness exploded. She felt herself thud on the ground gently. Getting up quite easily from it, a whole new sensation began flooding over her. An unexplained phenomena began at a tiny point, then started getting larger and larger.

It was some sort of rainbowy cloud of colors. She blinked dumbly.

'But dogs don't see in color...' she said, walking towards the color curiously. The wave of color washed over her. She never experienced this kind of sensation before. It felt much more bright and cheerful than any of the other odd gloomy things that happened before hand. She stood still for a moment to embrace this new feeling.

After a while she began swimming in it. It felt warm and gentle, and loving.

_When I'm away...  
When I'm away. (yeh hey ey yeah)  
When I'm away, to be in the shade!  
The oldest trees above my head!  
When I'm away, (I know)  
In my heart, there is a heaven._

Suddenly, the wash-over stopped. Everything went blank again.

'No! Give it back! Don't leave me!' she cried out, running towards the source of where all the light came from. She saw an image of me suddenly appear before her, in full color. She gently touched it.

'Tal, come on! Please! Make it come back!'

I looked at her smugly. 'I will, but do me a huge favor, Fritzie.'

'Hum?'

'Don't place this one on yourself, it's not your fault. You did everything in your power, I'm proud of you.'

'But this isn't even real!' Fritzie whimpered.

'Just wait a few days.' I replied. I started walking away.

'I still don't understand!' Fritzie whined out. I stopped for a moment and looked behind me.

'Wake up, and you'll understand it all soon enough. As for now, you have been very kind, so the universe gives you this gift. The ability to see color.'

Fritzie rubbed at her fur uncomfortably. 'So I'm not dead?'

'You are dead _inside_ until you decide to wake yourself up. Physically, no. You just hit your head pretty badly on a coffee table, and Alvin was in the process of apologizing to you.'

Fritzie stopped and looked at her hands, puzzled. 'How did you know that?' she asked dumbly.

'Oh, I personally don't. This is just your conscience talking to you. I wanted you to get over the hopeless feeling before you even wake up. I will know eventually, I'm going to have to, but I'm sure to accept it when I talk about it tomorrow.'

_Come right on in, yeah...  
Come right on in, yeah,  
Come right on in, yeah...  
Come right on in, yeah._

'Now, wake up. The next few hours will be sort of bitter, but when it's all done, all justices will be served in your favor. I promise you that.' I said, throwing an orb on the ground in front of her.

She reached for the orb, but before she touched it, she looked up at me.

'Thank you.' she said humbly.

I looked over my shoulder and nodded warmly. 'Go.'

Fritzie then touched the orb. Everything began fading dark again, and she began to feel horrible. She walked into the death trap after all.

* * *

Not a moment too soon, just after Alvin started approaching her, she moaned softly. About two seconds after that moan though, she jerked into a ball yipped sharply. She hadn't been in this much pain since she was viciously attacked by a large dog when she was a puppy, leaving a large gash right down her back. She opened one of her eyes. At first, she couldn't see anything, black. Was she blind, where was she, what happened? 

Alvin and Simon nearly jumped out of their fur at the sound of her cry. Both stood there speechless for a moment.

After a few moments though, she started to be able to see again. At first it was all a blob, but the more important thing was, it was a _colorful_ blob. It seemed to make the pain go away just a little bit.

If she wasn't in so much pain, she could say that she could only dream of seeing in color. She rolled onto her back, all of her limbs spread out.

Simon felt a bit relieved. He was going to use the water to try to wake Fritzie up, but he smiled in relief when she did it on her own accord.

"Just stay there and rest for a moment, you smacked your head pretty badly." he sighed.

Fritzie then remembered why she was in such blinding pain, and began whimpering. The whimper must have struck a chord with Theodore, because his hand twitched slightly.

Simon shot a glare at Alvin. "And I think Alvin has something to say about it, don't you Al-"

"I would have said it _without_ your help." Alvin groaned irritably at Simon. "I know when I've done something horribly wrong, I don't **need** your help."

Alvin rolled his eyes, then stopped when he was realizing what he was doing, and hoped that Fritzie didn't catch that. He bent down right next to her and put his hand on her shoulder. "I'm, err... sorry about, sort of, accusing you of... breaking Theodore's leg. Rather his leg than his whole body." he said shyly, getting up and kicking his feet together quietly. He really did mean it, but he didn't want to look weak either.

Fritzie mumbled incomprehensibly, trying to say 'It's okay' but resorted to weakly nodding instead. She opened her eyes slightly to see the red clad figure before her, but couldn't quite make much out other than the red. Her vision was still incredibly bad. She then opened the other eye and suddenly closed both of them. The colors were hurting her eyes, it was too bright. She resorted to squinting because she didn't want to quite _close_ them either. No matter how much of a headache she had, she was still curious about her surroundings.

Simon blinked stupidly at Alvin, in shock. Alvin apologizing twice on his own in five minutes? Could this be the apocalypse? He quickly covered up the reaction with a smirk. "Could've fooled me."

Alvin whirled around and shot another menacing glare at Simon. "I _heard_ that!" he said crossly, folding his arms and looking away again.

Simon smirked again at Alvin's reaction. "Well, at least your _hearing _doesn't need to be checked then." he said sarcastically. Alvin growled irritably, then sat down on the edge of the couch that Theodore was lightly sleeping on now.

Gently, Simon helped Fritzie into a sitting position. He placed her to lean on the coffee table. There wasn't any blood on the coffee table or on the floor, so at least that was a plus. "Here, have a drink." he said, offering her the drink he was holding. "How are you feeling?"

She tried saying 'Like total crap,' but that came out as incomprehensible garbage as well. She observed as the blue figure before her tried handing her something. Being able to see a little better, she took the glass of water eagerly. She downed it in two gulps, then licked the roof of her mouth and tried talking again.

"T-tt-esting... t-testing," she grumbled. Her voice was understandable, but choppy at this point. Satisfied enough with the results, she worked out enough to say, "not that hot."

"Well, considering the circumstances, it's only expected." he said sighing. He stood up. Fritzie looked up slightly without moving.

"P-painkillers?" Fritzie mumbled weakly. The headache was unbearable. In her mind, she hoped that this wasn't going to be the case for the entire week. She didn't just win a contest that she could only dream about to find out it was the most miserable adventure she ever took. That would completely suck.

Simon thought for a second to what 'painkillers?' could mean, but then figured that she wanted some headache medicine. "There's some aspirin in the bathroom cupboard. I'll be right back in a second, if you need anything in the meantime though," he said, looking over his shoulder as he began walking up the stairs. He flashed another glare at Alvin, then continued walking up the stairs, "ask Alvin!"

Alvin sunk his head down in silence.

"Ah, uhm, okay. Bring enough for, uhm, Theodore... for when he, uhm, wakes up." she said weakly, but loud enough to where she was sure that Simon could hear her.

'Yeah freaking right!' Fritzie thought to herself. She was afraid that asking Alvin things would just result in more disaster than what already happened.

In the meantime though, she opened her eyes more, trying to take in the surroundings a little better. She couldn't fully open her eyes yet, they still felt very heavy, and the room was still way too bright for her. She looked at all of the vivid colors though. I guess after being colorblind for for an entire lifetime, color would be more vivid than anything in the world.

As Simon was on his way back, she sighed. She couldn't help but comment on how her surroundings look. She could have chose better wording though.

"Wow, it's so beautiful, so bright, so vivid. It's breathtaking." she said with a sigh. She closed her eyes and tried to rest a little bit. No chance in helping herself this time.

Simon dropped the bottle of aspirin and looked at Alvin. Alvin shot a scared look back at Simon. Alvin didn't like hearing what Fritzie just said at all. He started to panic.

"Huh?" Simon said in a confused tone. He didn't like the sound of that either. He knelt down by Fritzie. "What is?"

Alvin couldn't take the pressure any longer. "Don't you understand Simon? Shes dying!! Oh noes!!" he yelled out, panic lacing in his voice.

Fritzie opened her eyes and looked irritably at Alvin. 'So he really doesn't think before he speaks,' she thought to herself. She growled lightly. The yelling though was making Fritzie's headache worse though.

"Do you **have to yell**!?" Fritzie snapped at Alvin. She wanted to get up and silence him herself but she was in too much pain. "God, show some respect or silence yourself for Christ's sake!"

Simon rolled his eyes. "Alvin! Calm down, no one is dying! You're over-reacting!" he said sternly, gritting his teeth. If Fritzie wasn't there, he would have yelled at his brother for his idiotic nature.

Alvin gave them a wounded expression. Simon laughed a little though. He went back and picked up the bottle of aspirin that he dropped on the floor and opened it, taking one tablet out. He walked over and handed it to Fritzie. "Here you go. After your headache starts to clear, we'll get you something to eat, if Dave doesn't get home by then. We should bring your energy and sugar levels back up again."

Fritzie generously took the tablet from Simon's hand, and in fact, snatched the bottle out of his hand and took a second tablet out, before closing the lid and passing it back to Simon. She went to pop one of them into her mouth, but realized she had nothing to drink. She grinned lightly.

"Ehehe, sorry, can I have another glass of water please?" she said, grinning sheepishly but wincing.

"Of course, sorry, I didn't think of that. I'm sure i Alvin /i would be happy to get you a glass after that little outburst of his." he said out into the room, putting the bottle of aspirin into one of his pockets, then shooting a glare at his brother; one that said 'Do it or else, and no complaints or I'm telling Dave about your behavior throughout all of this.'

Alvin got up off of the couch. He shot a glare back at Simon saying, 'You little snitch! If you're lying to me, you're mine.'

Simon looked back at Alvin with an innocent 'What? Who, me?' smile on his face. The halo was almost visible around his head.

Alvin grinned a little, then walked into the kitchen. He reached into the cabinet and got out another glass, and filled it up with cold water from inside the fridge. He started giggling to himself as he was coming back from the kitchen.

"Hehe, sorry, I don't mean to laugh." he said apologetically. He didn't know where the apology came from, but at least this impulse shouldn't piss Simon off more than he already was at him. "I just had a funny thought pop into my mind, thats all."

Simon let out a world class glare at Alvin. Alvin didn't flinch this time though. "Oh, and pray tell us what that thought was?" Simon said sarcastically. He began to feel more and more empathy for what Dave goes through on a daily basis.

Alvin raised an eyebrow with a smug look on his face. The look on his face read out 'This is what I mean.' "Just think about it for a second, you'll understand why."

He turned around and walked upstairs. He wanted to go looking for something.

Simon shook his head, trying to figure out what Alvin meant by that look. After a moment, it clicked, and he giggled a little bit too. Perhaps they did have latent telepathic abilities. 'didn't they have these studies with twins on this sort of thing?' he thought to himself. He tried it with Theodore, but Theodore was still out like a light. He sighed a little bit.

After Fritzie took the aspirin, she began thinking about what she remarked about. She rubbed the back of her head lightly, then looked at her hand. Surprisingly, she wasn't bleeding. She then remembered what she was remarking about.

"Oh, you asked me what I was muttering to myself about?" Fritzie said innocently, blinking stupidly as she was looking around the room. She settled on the near flaring blue in front of her. She softly felt the material of Simon's sweater. "I know this might be a really dumb question," she said quietly, "but what color is this?"

Simon gave Fritzie a skeptical look. "Color? It's... blue." He said inquisitively. Fritzie nodded

"Blue, eh?" she said questionably, looking up towards the ceiling. The aspirin was working already. "I gotta remember that."

Fritzie then began flooding with questions about what all of the colors were, but she didn't want to sound like a two year old child either, so she settled for a better time to ask these questions. She didn't want to come off as being ignorant, either.

Simon's wrinkled his nose and adjusted his glasses. 'Dogs normally don't see in color... but of course, this wasn't your normal dog, either.' he thought to himself. "Are you sure you didn't hit your head too hard?" he asked dryly.

Fritzie's headache began to fade a bit. It felt slightly comforting. "I hit my head hard enough to see in a scale that I can't explain, so I can only guess it means that this is what color was. I don't exactly know what this means in the long run though."

Simon blinked. This was quite extraordinary, albeit the bad timing. "Oh, I couldn't even imagine the shock of the whole thing. If you need help with anything about it, please ask me, I don't mind." Simon of course didn't mind tutoring people, as long as they would take a grasp of the knowledge instead of using him for his intelligence.

Fritzie looked over at Theodore again, now that she could see for the most part. Theodore was still unconscious. Now how is it that she could be in and out twice and he still didn't come out of his concussion yet. A worried expression crossed her face.

"I'm more worried about Theodore than myself still, though. I have been knocked out and come to twice after he was knocked out, and he's still out of it. It still makes me feel very guilty, although I won't let guilt overtake me this time."

Simon shook his head and placed his hand comfortingly on her shoulder. "It's a blessing that you knocked him out, the truth to be told." he said slightly with a bitter tone. He didn't want to see Theodore in this bad of shape, but all the same it was a bit more comforting. "If he's asleep like this, that's less pain that he will feel before Dave arrives home. Still, there isn't anything you should feel guilty about. You were at the right place at the right time and did the right thing. That's really all that matters."

Fritzie remembered what Calvin, the public bus driver, said on the ride here. _"All yeh need to do is be at the right place at the right time and do the right thing."_ And just like that, the guilt was gone.

"Besides, if you weren't there at that time..." Simon trailed off, his eyes began to water slightly, "we might not have a little brother any-"

Fritzie hugged Simon before he could even finish his sentence. He said the best thing that she could have possibly heard at that moment. Simon blushed under his fur, glasses steaming up a little.

"I don't feel guilty anymore." she said shyly, embracing Simon rather tightly. "I'm overly sympathetic though, and that's something I cant just leave behind."

Simon smiled lightly. 'I must have said something right.' he thought to himself. Fritzie let go and leaned back against the coffee table.

"So, I guess I know first hand what the articles mean by Alvin's impulse problem..." she trailed off, rethinking what she said. She grinned weakly. "...err, magazine and internet rumors and whatnot. Sorry, didn't mean to change the subject on you, I guess you're right about Theodore."

Simon grinned about Fritzie's nervousness. "Oh, trust me, we know all about them." Although Alvin was up in their room, he leaned closer to Fritzie anyways, and whispered, "If Dave and his allowance would let him, he'd buy every tabloid that even had a passing mention about him." His brother vain and egocentric? Perhaps. "Besides, they aren't too far off of the truth most of the time."

Fritzie giggled. She reached into her pocket to take a look at the GPS. She remembered me mentioning that he could understand the GPS better in color. Seeing as it was not damaged at all, she turned the settings back to color and looked at it. It was so much easier to understand, and in fact, the GPS said that she should have taken a completely different path. She looked at it satisfyingly. She was in the right place, at the right time and did the right thing. She turned it off, and put it back into her pocket.

She then thought about the color tutoring. "And, uhm... about tutoring me, I guess you could if you don't mind troubling yourself, but right now probably isn't the best time. Wait... Dave? You call him by first name?" she asked, interrupting what she was originally saying, then shook her hand. "Wait, never mind, I call Tal by first name... but then again, he's an older brother figure to me. Dave must be a fatherly figure, but yet... ah never mind, I'm babbling."

Now even she began to wonder, how hard _did_ she hit her head. She was almost speaking nonsense, changing subjects, wondering obvious things? Where _was_ this Dave guy, anyways?

Simon's grin turned into a soft smile. "I wouldn't have offered to tutor you if I didn't mind doing it." Education was one of the most important things in Simon's life, and if he could share his education with others, it was even better.

"Yeah, he doesn't mind," he continued, looking at the door behind him. Brittany was still standing in the doorway, off in her own little world. This world didn't feel comfortable though, it wasn't the usual world that Brittany was staring off into. He turned his attention back to Fritzie again. "Alvin actually started it when he first adopted us. It just kind of, stuck. He's the best dad anyone could ask for, and putting up with Alvin's antics alone is worth that."

Alvin returned downstairs with a Teddy Bear in his hands. He walked over to the couch and gently placed the bear in his arms and sighed. Today was really taking a toll on him, making him act in opposite extremes. Deep inside, he was beginning to feel a resentment at Eleanor now, but all the same, he didn't feel like acting like himself for a while. Where was Eleanor anyways? And more importantly, why didn't she _call first_ saying that she was going to be late? This whole problem could have been avoided.

Simon shot a smirk at Alvin, but it immediately and a sense of pride replaced it instead. Simon didn't even think that Theodore might want Teddy when he woke up. Seeing Alvin do that on his own, as compared to his usual self-centered mentality, made him want to give Alvin a hug.

Fritzie felt a bit relieved at what Simon said. Even though he was supposed to be the 'easily agitated intelligent' brother and Theodore was the 'adorably loveable butterball,' Simon had a heart of gold, just like his younger brother. Fritzie liked that. She couldn't help but begin to wonder though, what would have happened if it was a normal day? She began to wonder what Theodore was initially looking for.

"Hey, uhm, why was he doing when he fell out in front of that car like that?" she asked puzzlingly, trying to take a peer out the front door. She then finally noticed the girl chipmunk standing in the doorway, and almost began to wonder how much of the conversation did i she /i hear? "And, uhm, who is that... whatever color that is, chipmunk?" she asked, pointing at Brittany. Brittany didn't even react.

"Oh, her? That's Brittany, the lead singer of the Chipettes. They are good friends of ours and we tour together occasionally." Simon said dryly, then paused. "And that color she is wearing is called 'pink.'"

"Ah, pink eh?" Fritzie said curiously. She leaned over to Simon and whispered, "What an eyesorish color."

Simon chuckled slightly. "Yes, well, she's very fond of that color anyways. Don't let her hear that you aren't fond of that color though." he whispered back.

"Oh, haha, alright." she whispered back, winking. Noting that Brittany still didn't react worried her a little bit.

Simon looked at Fritzie, his expression becoming more serious. "About Theodore running out like that, I don't know. As I said, I totally forgot that you, being the winner of the contest, was coming over today, so I was upstairs studying until just after the start of the chain of events today." he said explainingly, then turning around to look at Alvin, who was sitting head in arms on the stairwell.

"Alvin, why _did_ Theodore burst out of the house anyways?"

"In case you haven't noticed, Simon, Eleanor isn't here." he said almost apathetically, lifting his head up and pointing into the kitchen with his thumb. "You remember from breakfast, Theodore mentioning that he was looking forward to baking something with Eleanor today?" he grumbled, then staring out the door as if Brittany weren't sitting in the doorway.

Brittany finally stirred out of her dream, noticing that Alvin was on the stairs and that the dog that was previously unconscious was now looking at her worriedly. Her face didn't change expression much though, but she looked around the house, signaling she was alert again. She couldn't help but worry about where Eleanor could possibly be. She also remained silent. She didn't want Alvin to scream at her again.

Simon got up and looked around the room puzzlingly. "Eleanor's not..." Simon began saying, but shook his head no. "Eleanor's not here." he repeated slightly confused. He took a look at Theodore, his face was starting to show signs of life. Then it clicked. "Of course, Theodore must have ran outside to look for her!" he said in realization. His heart dropped. Although it was hard to admit, it was adorable seeing Eleanor and Theodore's mutual crush. His heart went out for his little brother.

"Mmhmm." Alvin hummed in his unchanging near apathetic tone. He looked at Brittany for a moment, then went back to looking out the door. He was a little surprised about Brittany's near utter silence, it was very much out of character. 'She must be worried about Eleanor just as much as I am about Theodore.' he thought to himself. He was rather assured that Fritzie was somewhat alright now, but Theodore was still unconscious, which was beginning to feel extremely uncomfortable.

Fritzie sat up straight. For getting two nasty knocks on the head, her headache was now practically gone, which was quite amazing. She figured now that she would be fine in two or three days, instead of the 'all week miserable' scenario. Perhaps they could extend her stay though?

Simon then began to get more worried about the scenario than he already was... now he had another body to worry about. Where was Eleanor, and was she alright? "Brittany, do you know why Eleanor never came over?" he asked dryly, but he could almost guess the answer before she said it. If Eleanor wasn't here, then Brittany probably came here looking for her.

Brittany got up slowly looked over at Simon and sighed. She shrugged, but only lightly. "I have no clue. She was supposed to be over here a long time ago, and now she's completely missing." she said quietly. Thoughts of what might have happened began to fill in her mind, causing her to look to the ground in depression.

Fritzie began to think for a second, who was this Eleanor person, and what relation could she be of them? But before she could get a few seconds pondering, something caught everyone's attention in the room.

Theodore let out a soft moan from the couch, and one of his hands began moving slightly.

* * *

**Yes, finally, one of my more bulkier chapters. As for the cliffhanger, tune in early tomorrow afternoon for the next chapter. (Evil grin.)**

**REVIEW! D:**


	9. Chapter 8: Theodore's Awakening

**Thank you for the stable and consistant reviews Nikki and Dice. It makes my day a little brighter hearing your takes on the story. And Nikki, what you said in the review is inthis chapter. :P**

**As for review bitching, I'm going to try to tone it down. Yes, I really would love other people's feedback, but screaming "Review peoples!!" might be a little bit of an off putter. So I'm going to chill on the review demanding, however, reviews are still greatly appreciated. :(**

**Anyways, 'good morning.' I know last chapter I said I would release this 'tomorrow morning' but I slept late. It's still morning though on the Pacific Coast, so it all depends on your time zone. :P**

**Since this is a short chapter, I may release Chapter 9, but it all depends on how I feel when I get home from work later today. If I get more than the two usual reviews, I may release it as early as eight, but otherwise, I haven't decided whether or not to release it tonight or early tomorrow morning.**

**Anyways, cheers, enjoy the chapter.**

-Narf

**-------------------Chapter 8: Theodore's Awakening------------------**

Simon literally scrambled over to Theodore's side the second he heard the stir. Alvin nearly leapt off of the stairs. Even Brittany perked up a little bit, and began to walk a little bit into the living room.

Fritzie's eyes widened. She could sense that he was no longer asleep. "I think he's coming out of it now." she said with a gasp. Almost instinctively, she tried to get up, but halfway in, she sat back down and yipped a little bit. "Ow, okay, ow. You win, not moving, damn it." she whined. She didn't _want_ to be where she was, but her choices were sort of limited.

Simon gently held Theodore's hand. He had no idea how much pain his baby brother would be in, but he was confident it wasn't going to be merely like a bee sting.

Theodore slowly started coming to his senses. The last thing he remembered was that he was trying to run back for the sidewalk from something... a car? He remembered the headlights, and how he was shielding his eyes from them. There was a dull pain coming from his head, his stomach, and his left leg. He drifted out of consciousness slightly.

Since Fritzie was mainly incapacitated, she began to think again about who this Eleanor actually was. She then remembered seeing another female chipmunk, one who was pretty pudgy, with light hair and pigtails, and more notably, a large striped tie.

"Erm, Brittany, if you don't mind me asking you something." Fritzie said quietly. Brittany turned and faced Fritzie.

Brittany didn't even pay attention to the obvious fact that she was a talking anthropomorphic dog, but she heard her name called. "Hm?" she hummed quietly.

"What does this Eleanor look like anyways? I assume that she's your sister, but that might be just an assumption. And um, please, I need physical features, I don't understand what colors are. Just because I can see in color _now_ doesn't mean I always could."

Theodore began to come to again. He vaguely heard Eleanor and the wheels started turning a little bit.

"Yes, she is my sister." she said with much effort. She began to notice what she was talking to. A talking dog? She would have to think about this later. "And she, uhm, has very light hair, with pigtails... and she has like a schoolgirl's outfit, with a tie and a poofy skirt. She's also short, shorter than me."

Instant description match. Fritzie's eyes went wide. "I... I think I saw her, on my way here. She was skipping her way into town." Kind of funny how she seen that. She thought of a female chipmunk as a small oddity in itself, and thats why Eleanor caught her eye. Perhaps she could shed light on the situation a bit.

Brittany suddenly went from depressed to total shock. A talking dog just told her that she seen her sister skipping to town. The realization was too overwhelming to her, and she suddenly became totally emotionless.

Fritzie grinned sheepishly. "I guess that must've been Eleanor then."

Theodore heard the second Eleanor loud and clear, and began to wake himself up pretty fast. Perhaps, a little too fast.

"Eleano-" Theodore started saying, a little worriedly, but couldn't finish what he was saying. The pain in his leg and head were blinding, and Theodore lost what little vision he regained back since waking up. He squeaked loudly gripping whatever was in his arms incredibly tightly. He began to roll over slightly on his side but felt the edge of the couch and rolled back. He wrinkled his face in stress.

'Well, I'm not in the hospital, that's for sure.' he thought to himself, noting what felt like the living room couch.

Alvin scrambled over to the couch. He looked up at Simon in a slight panic then down at Theodore again and backed up slightly. He didn't want to do anything stupid, particularly now.

Simon cringed a little bit, then let go of Theodore's hand. He immediately began fumbling around the bottle of aspirin he had stuffed in his pocket. He shakily took two out and put the bottle on the coffee table.

"Theodore?" Simon said quietly, a tinge of relief in his voice. "Can you hear me? It's Simon."

Theodore grunted and lightened up the tension in his face slightly. He managed to get a weak nod in there. Simon sighed.

"It'll be alright, I have some pain killers in my hand and Dave is on his way home now. Can I help you into a little bit of a sitting position, so you can take them?" he said, looking at the aspirin in his hand. He looked at Alvin briefly, at his hand again, then back at Alvin.

It took a second, but Alvin knew what Simon was trying to say and nodded. He didn't want to be the gopher, but now was definitely not a time to complain. He sighed a little bit, then got up and grabbed another glass of water from the kitchen. Before he came back though, he ran upstairs with the glass of water in his hand and searched around for a green baseball cap.

Theodore nodded lightly, then opened his eyes again. His vision was totally fogged up, so he couldn't see a thing. Simon helped him up enough so that he could help him take the pain medicine, but noticing that Alvin wasn't coming back from the water. He gritted his teeth. He didn't want to have Theodore wait any longer than he absolutely had to.

After a few seconds, Alvin couldn't find it right then and there and realized he was supposed to give Theodore water, not look for a hat. He ran down the stairs and quickly handed Simon the water.

"Sorry, was looking for something, should have given you this first." he said quickly and abruptly before running back towards the stairs..

Simon just shook his head, but smiled and took the drink. 'He's being awfully polite now. I wonder what could be so important upstairs, though.' he thought to himself, then gently started helping Theodore take the medicine.

Alvin ran back up the stairs and began trying to think where he could have hidden the hat. Theodore was an expert at finding most things, but Alvin must have hidden the hat in a clever spot. A flashback came back to him.

_"I'm the _only_ one in this house that deserves to wear a cap in this house!" Alvin grumbled, snatching Theodore's brand new cap. It was on backwards, trying not to look like Alvin. Theodore sighed and looked sadly at Alvin. Simon clenched his fists._

_"Alvin, no you aren't!" Simon growled furiously. Alvin poked his lip with one of his fingers. He thought to himself and nodded, but didn't give Theodore the hat back._

_"Oh, right, sorry," he said sarcastically, "Dave can wear one too. He's our dad after all."_

_Simon let out a world class growl, and began to step forward to hit Alvin, but Theodore gently pushed Simon back. He shook his head no._

_"It's okay Simon. As much as I would like the hat, I don't need it. If he feels so strongly against it, let him. I'll just, think of something else. That's all." Theodore sighed. He wanted the hat badly and he knew it, but with Alvin, now grinning at the fact that he won, he knew that it probably wouldn't happen. He sat on the edge of his bed. Perhaps he would go try to find where Alvin will end up hiding it in a couple of days._

Alvin began to feel incredibly guilty. It took something serious to happen to his baby brother to finally show some well deserved compassion. He made a silent vow to himself to make it up to Theodore.

He looked under his bed. Inside a cleverly cut hole in his box-spring mattress, he pulled out a green hat. A little dusty and covered with link, but still looked almost new. He brushed the fuzz off of it.

He then figured while he was up here, he might as well change out of his nightwear. He was beginning to feel hot with it on, so he took off his huge red turtle-neck off, and changed into his normal school clothes. He didn't quite want to put the sweater back on, but he stuck the hat in the pocket of it, and folded it up crudely, then went back down the stairs.

* * *

After Theodore finished downing the aspirin, Simon eased him back to laying down. "I-I h-h-h-home?" Theodore stammered uneasily. He wasn't aware of anything after seeing the headlights. If he was hit by a car, why was he inside the house, and in less pain than the already extreme pain he was getting in his head and left leg. It still wasn't any kind of pain that he felt before, and he still instinctively wanted to clutch his leg, but he was too weak to move. The ice packs were helping the situation out slightly, but not much. "Wh-wh-wha h-hoppent?"

"Simon, I don't mean to interrupt or anything, but can you please help me move over next to the couch? I can't take it anymore! I know I can't do much to help, but I still want to comfort him. I really feel bad." Fritzie said quietly. She never got to talk to Theodore at all yet.

"Unh, nh, wh-who-who's dat?" Theodore mumbled weakly.

"Just a second Theodore, I'll explain it as understandable as I can after I move Fritzie over to you. She's a very important friend of ours." Simon said reassuringly to Theodore, hurrying over to Fritzie for a moment and helping her move over to the couch. Fritzie felt extremely dizzy moving, but with Simon's help, she sat down in front of the couch and leaned on another part of the coffee table.

"W-wh-what's a F-Fritzie?" Theodore stammered.

Simon brushed Theodore's hair fringe out of his eyes a bit. His hair was wet, and he looked absolutely miserable. Simon tried real hard not to look away, it was awful. "When you fell out onto the road, Fritzie here saw you and got you out of the way just barely before the car hit you. If it wasn't for her... I- couldn't imagine what would have happened, and truthfully, I don't want to either." he explained to him quietly. Theodore turned his head and tried to get a good look at Fritzie who was now sitting in front of him. He could only make out colorful blobs now.

"Hi." Fritzie said shyly. She warmly grabbed Theodore's hand.

Theodore squeezed the hand gently. It didn't feel like a chipmunk's or a human's hand, but rather a soft and furry one. He didn't quite understand it, but it felt warm and gentle, and it made him feel a little bit better. Obviously this thing was very friendly. He rubbed the tears out of his eyes to see if it would clear his vision up a little bit better. It worked out quite well. He took a good look at Fritzie.

He blinked dumbly at the sight of the terrier in front of him. Fritzie's ears dropped.

'Oh, no, is he going to pull the 'but you're a dog routine' with me?' she thought to herself, with a glint of fear in her eyes. Theodore noticed that she began to be a little bit startled. He eased up a little, and instead, made a painful smile.

Theodore remembered very briefly seeing a dog down the road when he was in a frenzy looking around of Eleanor. He didn't pay any attention to it all about it, but seeing her here, he began to try to connect with what happened. He apparently wasn't hit by the car, so that only meant that Fritzie tackled him as hard as she could to get him out of the way. He looked at his leg, then at Fritzie again. It all made sense now. 'That must have been one hell of a tackle.' he thought to himself. Considering that him and his brothers were talking chipmunks, he didn't even think twice about her species from that point on. She was a friend. He cleared his throat.

"Thank you." he said shyly with as least a painful of a smile as possible.

Fritzie nodded and grinned. She was a bit relieved that he didn't pull the 'you're a dog' routine, which meant that he was as nice and polite as they really said that he was.

"And the more ironic thing of them all, remember that contest that Dave offered to us?" Simon said with a grin. Theodore looked dumbly at Simon.

"I see you do _now_." Theodore said dryly. Simon looked at Theodore puzzlingly.

"You mean, you remembered it this whole time?" Simon asked him dumbly. He felt so ashamed for being so ignorant.

"Why do you think I was so cheerful this morning?" Theodore said bluntly. Simon hung his head a little bit, but then perked up again.

"Well, I kind of learned the hard way." Simon said shyly. Theodore shook his head.

"Why? Is the winner here!?" Theodore said rushedly, lifting his head up and looking around the room. He noticed Brittany standing rather motionless in the corner. He figured that Fritzie was one of the neighbor's dogs.

"Why do you think I'm here?" Fritzie said glumly. Theodore gazed at Fritzie and thought for a second. Then his eyes lit up.

"Wow." he said in total amazement. He didn't quite believe what he was hearing. He was waiting for his hero? He saddened up again. "Heh, um, s-sorry to make you go through this. Are y-you okay?"

Fritzie warmly put her hand on his arm. "It's you I'm more concerned about. I got a few nasty knockouts, but I gone and came back from them before you even woke up. I'll be fine, just give me a day or two."

Alvin came back down the stairs. He changed his clothes and was coming down with his sweater folded up a bit. He beckoned for Simon to come over.

"I'll be right back, I think Alvin wants to talk to me in private." Simon grumbled, rolling his eyes. Fritzie closed her eyes and began channeling her excellent hearing into good use.

After both Alvin and Simon were on the other side of the house, Alvin began digging around in his sweater.

"Now what do you want?" Simon groaned. He didn't have time for one of Alvin's mind games.

"How bad does his head hurt?" Alvin replied. Simon gave him a confused look.

"Pretty bad, why, what does that have to do with anything?" Simon said, rolling his eyes. Alvin pulled the green cap out of his sweater's pocket.

"I'm trying to decide on a decent time to just stick this back on his head."

Simon went wide-eyed. These random acts of kindness were almost astounding. Did he really feel bad about the stuff that he's done recently? "Are you being serious about this?" Simon whispered happily.

"If I wasn't, then I wouldn't have asked you to talk to me in privacy." Alvin whispered. He obviously wanted this to be a secret for now. Simon jumped up and hugged Alvin.

"I'll help you do the vacation's history project and all of your math homework next week." he said excitedly. In the last twenty minutes, Alvin made Simon go from totally pissed to extremely grateful. Alvin raised an eyebrow, but it didn't change the solemn expression on his face. Alvin would probably bother him about the remark later, but for now, he was more worried about other things. "And I won't tell Theodore about you're little surprise gift. How about that?"

"The secret is all I care about this second, but I'm not going to forget about the homework offer. It might help out tonight, actually." Alvin said, rolling his eyes up in thought.

"You're planning a revenge already?" Simon said, a little surprised.

"Sort of... but not in depth just yet. Can't blame me, can you?"

Simon looked up towards the ceiling. Revenge sounded awesome this time, somehow. "Not one bit." Simon said with a grin. "Let's go back into the living room, we have two injured comrades in the house, and Brittany doesn't look so good either.

"Right." Alvin said with a little enthusiasm. He had a feeling him and Simon were going to cooperate quite nicely for a while. It felt, righteous.

Simon ran back hurriedly to where Theodore and Fritzie were. Fritzie looked up and smiled at Simon. She heard the whole thing, she just didn't know what this said 'surprise gift' was. It had to be something significant though. She didn't say a word, but she looked at Simon and winked. Simon looked at Fritzie in confusion. She rubbed one of her ears, then rolled her eyes towards her ear, and nodded. Simon darted a look at his feet, then at Alvin, then at Fritzie again, then looked at her like she heard them. Fritzie nodded, but bit her lip.

Theodore sighed. He knew that Simon and Alvin were planning something, and they weren't going to tell him because they didn't want him to worry. He began to wonder how long would it take for Dave to get home.

Fritzie looked over her shoulder and out the window. She could hear a car coming. A car pulled into the driveway, and abruptly stopped, and a man ran straight for the house. "Boys! Fellas!" a voice yelled out from by the doorway.

"Dave!" Alvin, Simon and Theodore called in unison. Then Theodore broke down and started crying.

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**And that's a wrap for Chapter 8! Stay tuned for... whenever I release Chapter 9. I eagerly await your reviews, if any aside from the usuals...**

**(Love you guys, not trying to downplay you. :P)**


	10. Chapter 9: Dave's Return

**I decided to release Chapter 9 tonight as well, because I'm not feeling well. I was intending to release the chapter a little bit later, but I want to get some well needed rest, so here's the next chapter.**

**I would like to thank "ASOUEandAATCrules" for becoming the newest person to review. I would love to see more, but as I said, I'm trying not to pressure. :S As for people not knowing what to say, it's not that hard. I do love the small critiques I get, but anything works. It can even be just one word, just something. :)**

**I will probably release Chapter 10 tomorrow morning, but I can't make any promises. I have work real early tomorrow morning, so I'll see if I can wake up in time to post the next part. Keep me busy reading when I come back from work tomorrow:D**

**Oh, and as usual, cheers, enjoy the next chapter.**

-Narf

**------------------------Chapter 9: Dave's Return--------------------**

'Oh no, that's not good.' Alvin thought to himself, and he ran over to Theodore and tried to hug him in as awkward of a position he was in.

"I'm so sorry boys, I dropped whatever groceries I had in my hand and ran out the door as soon as you called Alvin. I seemed like every traffic light I hit was red." Dave said exasperatedly, slamming the front door behind him as he ran over to Theodore, who was lying the couch. "Are you alright, Theodore?"

Theodore really wanted to say yes, he really did, but just the situation he was in, he just couldn't lie about it. "No!" he cried out, trying to rub the tears out of his eyes.

"Alvin wasn't very clear about the details, is Theodore hurt?" Dave asked worriedly. Simon nodded lightly.

"We... ahh, Alvin and I, think that his leg's broken. Alvin kind of discovered it actually. He was also unconscious for quite some time, he woke up about five minutes before you arrived home." Simon said dejectedly. Dave nodded.

'Broken leg? Concussion? I suppose it could have been worse.' Dave thought to himself. He edged his way onto the couch and placed Theodore in his lap. 'I was expecting to arrive home and Alvin to be grinning because of a joke, but seeing Theodore like this... it breaks my heart to question Alvin like that, even though ninety-nine percent of the time it is a joke.' Dave began to cradle Theodore very carefully.

"Shhh, it'll be alright, we'll have to get you to the hospital though right away. Have you had anything for the pain?" Dave said, in the most comforting voice he could. Simon nodded. Theodore stopped crying, but was still sniffling. Alvin just backed away from Theodore a little bit and frowned. He didn't like the idea of going to the hospital.

"And before we go, since everyone seems calm, please tell me exactly what happened." Dave said, looking around to Simon and Alvin, then now noticing Fritzie in his living room. "And also, someone care to explain why there is a dog in our living room?"

Fritzie winced sharply at the comment, and groaned a little bit. A touch of resentment began flooding her mind, but she, with a little bit of a struggle, let it go. Simon and Theodore might have accepted the fact without a comment, and Alvin for the most part ignored it too, but Dave was still a human. If she could flash the letter she got in the mail, and since he had a trio of talking chipmunks AND at least two chipmunk sweethearts, acceptance sounded easier than normal, but it still only sounded good on paper. She wasn't sure about what would actually result.

"Uh, hi?" Fritzie muttered. She waited for the expected 'you talk?' comment.

Dave blinked, he wasn't expecting a response from the dog. She was wearing clothes, but she wasn't expecting what he saw. "You... you can talk?" Dave said dumbly, then covered his mouth.

Fritzie gritted her teeth and punched the floor, then let out a world class glare. The resentment that she tried to push away began to get the best of her. She began to growl loudly.

"Well, you have us, don't you?" Theodore said, sniffling. He didn't want anyone to get hurt and in particular wanted Fritzie to calm down so that she wouldn't hurt herself even more. Fritzie's glare softened slightly, but not her anger.

Dave moved his hand from his face to in front of his eyes. "You're absolutely right, Theodore. Yes, I do, and you boys are the best thing that's ever happened to me, but I suppose I never really thought that chipmunks weren't the only ones who could talk." he said with a sigh, then gave Fritzie a warm look. "Listen, I'm real sorry, that comment before was rude of me. You have to understand how much stress I'm going through right now, I just wasn't expecting a response."

Fritzie sighed and sunk into the floor. The apology came fast. "That's alright, sir," she groaned. She knew that this was going to happen, she just didn't want it to happen _now_.

Simon approached Dave, fumbling around for the letter Fritzie gave him. It was the only way how to possibly explain this. "Uhm, the only way I can really explain this is if I give you this letter."

"What is it?" Dave asked curiously, using one hand to hold Theodore on his lap as he reached for the letter.

"Remember that contest that you promised us?" Simon grinned sheepishly. Dave looked at him and sighed.

"Well, I see you finally remembered it, yes, I remember it." Dave said, opening the letter inside the already open envelope. He suddenly recognized it.

"Fritzie here," he said, pointing at Fritzie and, "is the winner of the contest. She managed to get Theodore off the road before the car hit them."

Dave dropped the letter, and his jaw. "I- she saved Theodore?" he said, with an obvious surprised tone. He felt immense gratitude coming over his face. "Thank you, for saving my son." he said gratefully, hugging Theodore as tight as he could. Theodore squeaked.

"Easy, Dave, please. Not too hard." Theodore coughed out. He could understand Dave's happiness, but he was still hurt, and he had to watch after himself a little bit. Dave stopped hugging him so tightly and flashed a guilty look.

Fritzie blinked a little bit and sighed. "Ehehe, anytime sir." Fritzie said, flashing a cheesy grin on her face.

"Please, call me Dave." Dave said with a sigh. "I'm sorry Theodore. We should get you to the hospital, fix that leg of yours and make sure that there isn't anything more seriously wrong with you."

Theodore nodded. Dave flashed a look at the rest of the crew. "Fellas, you're coming too. The last thing I want to do is leave you alone right now, you understand right?"

Simon nodded, Alvin however kicked the side of the couch. Dave turned his gaze to Fritzie.

"I'd like to bring you along too, just to make sure you are alright too. It's the least of many things I could do for you after my rudeness and for what you did for Theodore." he said with a guilty smile. "I just wish I knew why Theodore was in the road though."

"He kind of, fell, into the road." Fritzie said with a weak smile, thinking about what happened before. "Alright, I'll try to remember to call you Dave. And yeah, I would love to get checked out, I knocked my head pretty hard a couple of times, so I want to make sure that nothing is wrong with me... especially considering that I can see in color now."

Dave looked over at Alvin, who was lightly kicking the wall now. He had his sweater on again. "Are you coming with us Alvin?"

"But Dave!" Alvin pouted. He didn't want to go to some stupid hospital. The people in there scared him. Dave tried to keep himself from yelling. Instead, he calmly picked Theodore up and began heading for the door.

"But nothing, Alvin, we could be in triage for hours. I wouldn't feel right leaving you and Simon home by yourselves that long, especially after what happened. You can either come with us, or I can go see if I can get Miss Miller to keep an eye on you. What will it be?"

Alvin flashed a look at Brittany, who was so silent it was scaring him. Brittany was standing in a daze in the Kitchen. Dave finally noticed that she was there. In all fairness, he was so focused on his kids and their new friend, and with Brittany being so quiet and subdued that he didn't even know she was there. The silence worried him. Then he began to wonder where Eleanor was, he knew that Theodore was waiting for her when he left.

'Well, with Simon there, I guess it wouldn't hurt to go just this once... but I wish that we could get Doctor Harris to- hey thats it!' Alvin thought to himself. "Cant we get the doctor to uhhh... come here? Besides... triage sounds kind of..." his eyes went wide at the sound of it, "scary." Alvin's unnatural fear of hospitals is why they had a family doctor in the first place.

"T-t-t-triage!?" Theodore squeaked fearfully, curling up into a ball in Dave's arms, but yipped when he tried moving his leg. He didn't know he was hugging his bear the whole time, so he settled for nuzzling his bear instead.

"Thank you Alvin, but no. Theodore might need a hard cast on, or a splint at the very least. It's much easier, and more comfortable to go to the hospital." Dave replied in earnest, expecting another 'but' from Alvin. He sighed and looked at Brittany.

"Aww nuts!" Alvin grumbled out.

"Al-vin!" Dave stressed through his teeth. He was not about to yell at him now, and Alvin got the message.

"Alright, alright, I'll come. I'd rather be there than be at Miss Miller's all by myself." Alvin grumbled.

"And Theodore, triage isn't something to be afraid of. It's just where we take you, like for a check-up. That's all. It's just where doctors find out what's wrong, how bad it is, and if it can be fixed easily. There's no point in giving someone a hospital bed if they only just had a sprained ankle." Dave said reassuringly to Theodore. Theodore looked up. "Besides, I will be with you the whole time. There's nothing to worry about, you can even bring Teddy if you want."

Theodore smiled and nodded. He remembered the last time he sprained his ankle, about a year ago. It hurt, but not this bad. He looked over at Brittany.

"I'm worried about Brittany, I never seen her this quiet before. It makes me worry even more about Eleanor." Theodore said quietly, then looked over at Brittany to see if she would react. "Hey, Brittany, have you seen Eleanor since?"

Dave frowned. "What does Eleanor have to do with this?" Dave said sternly. If she had anything to do with how Theodore gotten hurt, he wasn't going to be very happy with the youngest Chipette.

Simon helped Fritzie up off of the floor and onto the now vacant couch. "Eleanor never came over, so Theodore went outside to look for her when he fell into the road."

"Did she call him, saying that she was going to be late?" Dave asked worriedly, turning around with Theodore in his arms and looking worriedly at Simon. Simon shook his head no. Now he fully understood the situation, but it still didn't explain why the man didn't stay, which only could have meant that it was a potential hit and run, and that the guy was still at large somewhere in thier neighborhood. "Never mind, Brittany, there's room if you'd like to come with us, or I could drop you off at home if you'd like."

After a few moments of silence, Alvin shook his head and got up. "Bah she's not talking we don't have time for an answer lets go already!" Alvin blurted out real abruptly, making his way for the door.

"Alvin! I'm not leaving anyone alone right now alright? Just help Brittany into the car, we'll take her with us, Doctor Harris could treat her for shock while we're there."

Simon ran over to the door and opened it. Alvin then helped Brittany out the door, and Dave followed behind them with Theodore in his arms. Simon opened the front passenger door and helped assist getting Theodore secured into the car.

Fritzie who was alone on the couch for a few seconds, tried to get up on her own, but fell over onto the couch again. She was still incredibly dizzy, but unsure if Simon would come back to help her, she forced herself up again, and ran almost blindly out the front door. She teterred lopsidedly a few times, but managed to get to Dave's car without falling once, which was kind of nice, despite how sickly she felt. She planted her face against the window of the car. It felt nice and warm.

"Thank you, Dave." Theodore said quietly. He knew Dave was being extra careful not to hurt him in any possible way, but every movement hurt. He kept quiet about it though. Dave ran around to the driver's seat and waited for the car to pile up.

Simon frowned, noticing his really dizzy comrade. "I'm sorry Fritzie, I didn't forget you, I was on my way back into the house-"

"It's okay, really." she said dizzily, trying not to stall them any longer. "I know you can't keep a constant eye on me, and I'm so used to taking care of my own problems."

Simon helped Fritzie into the car while Alvin helped Brittany into the car, and they all secured themselves. Simon put his hand on Fritzie's shoulder. "Still, you should have waited, or at least called for me."

Fritzie nodded, sank into the seat and sighed. Naturally, she loved car rides, but this one wasn't going to be the most enjoyable car ride in the world. As the car started to move, he began to feel even more dizzy than ever.

'So the concussion is causing motion sickness, not just dizzy spells, wonderful.' Fritzie complained to herself. She was tempted to ask Dave to slow down, but the only movement she could tolerate was none at all, and gritted her teeth and braced herself for the ride.

Simon began to hug Fritzie. "I wish I could take the dizziness away." he said softly. Fritzie's eyes began to water. He was so kind to her, it reminded her of me. She was only used to Mom and I being like this to her.

"Thank you for being so nice to me, Simon," Fritzie said weakly.

"You deserve it,"Simon said with a warm smile. Fritzie nodded lightly, then sank even further into the seat.

"I don't mean to be so blunt, but I think I'm going to take a small nap. I think I have motion sickness, and every slight bump in the road makes me want to faint."

"Understood." Simon said with a smile, and Fritzie drifted off into a light sleep.

Alvin just sat quietly in the car. He looked over to Brittany who was sitting next to him. Her face was expressionless and unchanged. He sighed, and twiddled his thumbs. He then looked over at Simon and Fritzie in the next seat. Simon's compassion for someone that they didn't even know was outstanding. It was touching, as hard as he'd like to admit it, and he wanted to jump into the hug, but knew that right now wasn't the right time.

Theodore hummed a tune a little bit, but couldn't keep it in his mind. He decided to take a look at his leg, to see why it was hurting him so bad. He rolled up the bottom of his sweater and took a good look at it. There was a fairly large purple spot on his shin, and it was visibly swollen. He moaned a little bit, then sunk back into the seat. So much for what was going to be an awesome day.

* * *

**Tune in sometime tomorrow for Chapter 10, and I should be feeling better. I think I feel sick because I'm run down, but I don't know for sure. I look forward to any feedback. :/**


	11. Chapter 10: The Waiting Room

**Wow, I come back with five new reviews, thank you guys:D It turns up, I was mainly run down because of lack of sleep, but I still don't feel 100 percent, so I have to work on getting myself level headed. And Julie, I try not to grind myself into the ground. Work doesn't show any sympathy at all sometimes though. Yesterday I was lucky enough to go home an hour early just so I could get a little extra rest.**

**Anyhoo, here is Chapter 10. There's a good chance that I will upload Chapter 11, because the two are linked together. I'm sure everyone wants to know what happened to our three in question from a medical standpoint. I will release that chapter sometime later on this afternoon, for those who want to stick around. In the meantime though, keep me busy with reviews:D**

**Alright, enough gabbing. Cheers, enjoy the nextchapter. (I'm running out of beer! D: )**

**-**Narf

**(PS- Go Dave!)**

**---------------------Chapter 10: The Waiting Room-------------------**

It seemed to everyone that the drive to the hospital took forever, but in all reality, it was only a fifteen minute drive. And they didn't hit a single red light, which worked out in their favor.

Dave leapt out and ran around to Theodore, undoing his seat belt and gently cradling Theodore into his arms and shutting the door with his hip. "Alvin, will you be able to look after Brittany?" he asked hurriedly. He wanted to run into the hospital, but he didn't want to leave anyone behind, and he wanted to remain as calm as he could when talking to the medical staff.

"Uh... I guess." Alvin said, taking Brittany by the hand gently and helped her out of the car.

Simon slid out of the car and woke Fritzie up, then helped her out of the car. "You can lean on me if you need it," he said quietly, "we're at the hospital."

Fritzie nodded then firmly grabbed hold of Simon's shoulder. "Gladly, thank you. But shouldn't I be going to a vet?"

"You are more like us than a normal dog, so its better that you come here than a vet. A vet wouldn't know how to handle you, not to be offensive. Doctor Harris is a great man, I'm sure he would be able to help you out the best." Simon said reassuringly as everyone started for the entrance to the health clinic. 'Hollywood Hills Health Department' read the sign, so it meant that they were going to something a little more small scale than just a hospital. That was somewhat of a relief.

As fast as possible, Dave herded everyone into the clinic, and made his way to the receptionist nurse. An all too familiar face was sitting at the desk when Dave approached.

Ms. Nora Furlington. Wonderful. The middle aged nurse's nature was almost as cold as ice, and often, they would have to wait longer than they needed to. Theodore sighed loudly. It was absolutely empty inside the waiting room, which relieved some of the tension.

"Excuse me." Dave said briskly. The hapless nurse looked up unenthusiastically.

Alvin turned and faced Fritzie, and directed a whisper at her. "This is exactly why I'm afraid of here. That nurse gives me the creeps!"

Fritzie giggled weakly, then got a good look of the nurse in front of her. She didn't like the look of this.

"My son was nearly involved with a hit and run, his friend managed to get him out of the road in enough time... but neither of them are in good shape," he said almost loudly in a panic, "and I think one of the other children are in shock!"

Fritzie did a pretty good job of keeping her composure though much of this, but hearing Dave say 'his friend' made her finally start crying about it. From nobody to friend in less than an hour... wow. Nothing could mean more to her than whole world at that moment, and stopped hiding it.

The nurse yawned. "Please, take a seat. The doctor will be with you as soon as he can," she drawled out in an obvious bored and sleepy tone. As the party began to sit down, she fumbled around for a clipboard and walked around the counter. Before she could hand Dave the forms though, she took sight on Fritzie and gave Fritzie a dirty look.

Fritzie took notice to the look, and immediately got a hold of herself. The dirty look was one of those countless looks that she got on an everyday basis, and the familiarity of it all make her so angry. Of all places, why _here_? Ignoring her dizziness, she balled one of her paws into a fist and began showing the nurse her teeth.

"Listen here, sweetheart. I know exactly what you are thinking, so **don't **even freaking _think _about saying it." She said coldly, then softened up as the lightheaded feeling finally overtook her. She threw her paw in her eyes. "Just find someone who has a clue to what they're doing... please."

Simon smiled at Fritzie's reaction. None of them had the courage to tell the nurse off, but Fritzie was, well, something different.

The nurse, on the other hand, rolled her eyes and passed Dave the clipboard with the form on it. She wasn't paid enough to deal with talking animals that should have gone to a vet. After a small glare at Fritzie, she turned her attention to Dave. If her profession wasn't at risk, she would make the vet thought a vocal thought.

"While you're waiting, please fill out this form. The doctor will be with you as soon as he can. There is currently a wait for up to a half an hour." she said boredly.

Dave took another good look around the waiting room. He narrowed his eyes, slightly agitated by the 'half hour wait' bit. "Half an hour!? One of my _sons_ potentially has a broken leg! And there is nobody in the waiting room!" he said with a growl. Fritzie also growled at the second dirty look she received. If she wasn't in bad shape, she would have also given her a piece of her mind.

"It's just standard procedu-"

"Standard procedure or _not_, I am not in the mood or even fair game for waiting any longer than I have to this time, Ms. Furlington. The waiting room is empty, this is an emergency, if you don't get me the doctor as soon as possible, I will make sure that you lose your job." Dave growled irritably, looking the nurse square in the eye. The nurse backed up intimidatingly. The boys looked at Dave in surprise.

"T-take a seat, sir. I will get the doctor out as fast as I can, but you still need to fill out the form first," the nurse said, slightly in fear. Dave sighed, and began filling out the form.

Simon shook his head. "I'm sorry your week stay with us hasn't gotten off to a smooth start. It's not always like this, usually it's Alvin's fault."

Alvin let out a menacing growl at Simon. "Can't you leave the blaming crap for some other time!"

Simon sighed and rolled his eyes. "Sorry, I was just trying to lighten the mood a little."

Dave, on the other hand, wasn't as forgiving. "Al-vin! What have I told you countless times about using that kind of language? And Simon, stop harassing your brother! This is neither the time, nor the place, and I'm disappointed at both of you." he said sternly, filling out the form. Since he didn't want to take Theodore out of his lap, he used Theodore's stomach as a place to rest the clipboard, and every time he wrote on it Theodore giggled slightly in agony. He was very ticklish.

"Sorry, Dave." Simon said glumly. He felt ashamed for his little comment, and hung his head slightly. Fritzie rubbed her head a little bit. The dizziness feeling was finally starting to fade a little bit.

"Sorry, Dave..." Alvin said, beginning to protest. Dave gritted his teeth. "...it's just really stressful. I can't help it if things slip."

Alvin then walked over towards the lobby's vending machine. He flashed a proud look at Simon, considering that he got yelled at too.

Simon flashed a glare at Alvin. Alvin then put in a few dollars and began punching in a few numbers, and came back with four bags of chips of assorted types. He put a bag of Fritos in his pocket, and passed Simon a bag of Barbecue Chips. Simon lessened his glare a bit, and grunted a thanks.

Alvin then offered Fritzie one of the two bags of Cheetos, but Fritzie pushed the bag away. She wasn't particularly hungry right now. He shrugged, then handed Theodore the bag instead. Theodore took it happily, but put it in his pocket instead. He wasn't hungry at that particular moment either.

With one bag of chips left, he offered it to Dave. Dave looked up from filling out the clipboard and smiled a little bit.

"No thank you, Alvin. Just hold onto them for now, you might want them later. I appreciate the thought of it though." he grunted, then resumed finishing up the form.

Alvin shrugged, and shoved the bag in his pocket. He then sat down right next to Fritzie and twiddled his thumbs.

"Hey," he said quietly to Fritzie. Fritzie looked up. "Are you feeling any better? I'm sorry I haven't said much to you, it's really not like me."

Fritzie hugged him. "I'm feeling a little better, thanks. And appology accepted, from before too. Seeing in color is a wonderful gift, even if it was a painful to get." She whispered. Alvin blushed.

"You're not mad at me about that?" Alvin whispered back. Fritzie shook her head.

"You were in the process of apologizing to me when I fell, I can't stay mad at you for that." she whispered shyly. Dave didn't pay any attention to what they were saying. "He will never know about the real reason for the second concussion. I did fall over my own feet, after all."

Alvin smiled. A flashback came back to him.

_"That's impossible!" Alvin yelled out across the driveway. "Dave wouldn't let a girl visit us for a week!"_

'That was real stupid of me.' Alvin thought to himself. 'Here I am, with a girl dog, mind me, and she is turning out to be the best choice Dave could have ever picked. I wonder if she likes pulling pranks.'

Once Dave finished filling out the form, not a moment too soon, Ms. Furlington began to come over. Theodore sighed in relief, it took less than ten minutes this time. Fritzie giggled a little bit.

"Hehe, I take it you don't like her either?" Fritzie said quietly. Theodore rolled his head back so he could see her. He shyly shook his head no. Fritzie grinned. "I think I understand why."

"You and your entourage may go in now, Mr. Seville." she said, with a little more energy. It sounded forced, but it was better than the bored tone she was giving them.

'Finally!' Dave thought to himself as she took the clipboard and got up with Theodore still in his lap. He yipped out in pain when Dave got up, but Theodore grinned painfully and stared into Dave's eyes.

"Sorry, I know you're trying your best." Theodore said shyly. Dave kissed his forehead.

"You're being extremely brave, Theodore. After we are finished here, I'll take you all out to eat tonight, your choice Theodore." Dave said with a smile. Theodore put his thumb in his mouth and began thinking about all of the possible choices for dinner.

"As for you," he started saying, looking sternly at Simon and Alvin, "Simon, Alvin, can I trust you boys to not get into trouble if you wait out here, or do I have to bring you two in with Theodore, Fritzie, and Brittany?"

"We'll be good, Dave." Simon replied. He mentally cringed at the look in Dave's eyes.

Alvin lightly kicked a paper ball on the floor. "Pssh, it's not like we can do much anyways."

"I mean it, Alvin. The day that you won't cause trouble over the smallest thing is the day I'd give my piano away." Dave said half-jokingly.

Fritzie got to her feet, and somewhat dizzily walked over to Dave, and grabbed one of his arms lightly. "I hope you don't mind me, uhm..." she said, looking around the room in a daze, "using you for leverage. I normally walk on two feet perfectly fine, but the second knock out did me in."

Dave gave Fritzie a good natured look. It was times like this where he wished he was born an octopus. Doing the best he could to hold onto Theodore to make sure he didn't get hurt more, and guiding Brittany with his semi-free arm in the right direction, it confounded him about the fact that he had another body to help guide. "Of course I don't mind Fritzie, if I had more arms I would carry you too."

Fritzie grinned. "You don't have to worry about carrying me, just letting me hold onto you is more than enough for me. Thank you though."

As Dave, Theodore, Brittany and Fritzie entered the door leading into the hallway of offices, Theodore then began thinking about what Dave said to Alvin before they went in.

"Would you really bet your piano like that?" Theodore asked naively, thinking a moment about it. "I don't think Alvin really has any fight in him to do anything wier-"

A clattering noise could he heard from the lobby, and Theodore sighed. Alvin peered through the door and grinned sheepishly, then proceeded to pick up the chair he knocked over.

"Of course, I could be wrong..." Theodore muttered. Fritzie giggled a little bit.

Dave stopped walking and shook his head. "I don't think I ever had anything to worry about, do you Theodore?" he said, trying real hard not to turn around and yell at Alvin. Theodore shook his head no.

Dave looked over his shoulder just in time to see Alvin's grin. "Sit back down and don't leave that chair again, Alvin." Once more, he shook his head, then headed for the second door on the left.

"Maybe I shouldn't sit on the edge of the chairs again... apparently, they aren't bolted into the floor like I thought they were." Alvin commented, trying hard not to resent Simon's laughing fit.

"Oh my god, Alvin, just look at the chairs! They are exactly like the chairs that we have in school!" Simon said in between laughs, much to the annoyance of Alvin and the Ms. Furlington. "Of course they aren't bolted down!"

"Kids..." Ms. Furlington muttered. Alvin spun around and stared coldly at her.

"What! We're ten, and you work at a health department, do you expect everyone to be robots?!" Alvin jeered out. Simon continued to laugh even more, falling onto the floor. He kind of hoped that Dave wouldn't come running back.

Ms. Furlington let out a glare back at Alvin. "Sit down, kid." she grumbled, then began to work on whatever she was doing on the computer.

Alvin sat down in the chair next to Simon and rolled his eyes. Simon rolled his eyes too.

"This is exactly why we have Doctor Harris come to us usually." Alvin grumbled. Simon rolled his eyes.

"No, you are exactly why, Alvin." Simon said as a matter of factly. Alvin glared at Simon briefly, then threw his hands to his chin and began waiting.

* * *

**Stick around for the next chapter of "The Unlikely Hero." (Insert dramatic music here.)**


	12. Chapter 11: Cross Examination

**Thanks much for the reviews when I got back.� Had a real tense day at work, had to calm myself down before I went into rapidfire rant mode.� A calm and level headed Narf is better than an angry rant-hungry Narf.� The reviews helped me calm down.**

**Glad that a couple of you found the last chapter to be pretty funny, especially the robot line being a gut buster.� One of my other friends that read it cracked up as well.� Made me feel a little better.**

**This chapter should clear things up from a medical standpoint for anyone who has been questioning about it.� Example, Brittany's out of character behavior.**

**My mind is trying to pun at me to write a sequel to this story, and I already most of the groundwork etched into my mind.� So basically, what I'm asking is... would you read the sequel that I produce?� If I get enough people interested, I will start writing the sequel as soon as I finish drawing a few story panels for this current story.� Leave me a review and tell me what you think about it.� This includes my lurker readers.**

**Alright enough of my gabbing.� Remember to review.� Reviews do make my dreary and unentertaining (for the most part) days that much better, and I love to see what you have to say.� That's nothing short of the truth.� Cheers, enjoy the next chapter.**

-Narf

**-------------------Chapter 11: Cross Examination--------------------**

When Dave entered the office, the middle aged man with short brown hair, glasses, and a neatly trimmed goatee gave Dave an immediate sigh of relief. "Hi, Doctor Harris."

"Been in the wars again, Dave?" he asked, fumbling through some files in the next room. "Has Alvin been up to his usual tricks?"

Dave placed Theodore down comfortably on a bed, before placing Brittany in another bed. He then turned his attention to Fritzie. "Need help climbing up onto a bed?" Dave said quietly and hurriedly.

"Yessir." Fritzie said uncomfortably.

Dave gently picked Fritzie up and put her on the bed Theodore was on. "I told you Fritzie, please call me Dave."

Fritzie made an uncomfortable grin. "Sorry, habit, and thank you, um, Dave."

Both Fritzie and Theodore sighed, and began to prepare for the worst.

"Oh, sorry, doctor. No, not today, Theodore was nearly hit by a car." Dave said, turning his attention to Doctor Harris as he made his way into the examination room. Doctor Harris caught one good look at Theodore and nearly dropped the clipboard he had in his hand.

"Oh my goodness!" he said, looking at Theodore. He could see the dog to the right of him, but didn't understand. He knew off the bat that the dog wasn't normal, and it would be unprofessional to ask about it.

"Fritzie here," he said, pointing at Fritzie, "managed to get him out of the way just in time, thankfully. However, I think that in his fall as Fritzie pushed him out of the way, he might have broken is leg."

Doctor Harris flashed a warm smile at Fritzie, then looked back at Dave. "And young Miss Miller?"

Dave looked worriedly at Brittany. "The boys told me she became expressionless in the time between the accident and when I got home."

"I think she's just in shock, but I'll give her a check-up after I take care of these two."

Fritzie looked over at Brittany and shook her head. She was still off in her own la-la land. Fritzie raised her arms up and started flailing them a little bit in front of her face. "Flargen blargen blagh! I are teh zombie Brittany and I am here to eat your brainnnsss." Fritzie said in a gruff voice, then started laughing at her joke. She laughed for a few seconds, then stopped and rubbed her head again. "Ow, darn it!"

Theodore giggled too, then thought of what could happen if Brittany retaliated, and cringed. Thankfully, she didn't, but he could only imagine Brittany's wrath, and his imagination didn't like it.

Dave only nodded, but he smirked a little inside about Fritzie's playful comment. He couldn't condone them, but he knew that the kids needed to release some of their stress.

The doctor made his way over to Theodore and took a look at his leg and frowned. He took a look at Theodore's face as well. "Is there anywhere else that hurts Theodore?"

"Ummm..." Theodore said weakly as he began to think for a moment, "my tummy hurt a little bit when I woke up, but that's gone now. My head hurts quite a bit still, though, and Simon said I was asleep for a while," he said naively, putting one of his fingers to his bottom lip.

The doctor shone a small light in Theodore's eyes to determine a his reaction to the light. "Well, the concussion is mild, however, I would like to get an x-ray of your leg Theodore. I will call in xray to come and collect you." he said, walking towards the phone in the back room. Dave opened his mouth up to speak.

"Of course you can go in with him, Dave. If you'll excuse me, I will be back in am moment," he said, picking up the phone and pressing a button.

After a brief moment, the doctor came back into the examination room. "Alright, Theodore, they are ready for you. Dave, the room is the next room down on the left."

Dave nodded, then picked Theodore up and carried him into the next room. The doctor then turned his attention to Fritzie.

"Now, while that is happening, is there anything wrong with you, dear?" he said warmheartedly.

Fritzie blinked dumbly for a second. She could not believe that he was talking to her so _smoothly_. She shook her head lightly for a second in disbelief, then nodded.

"Uhmm, I kind of got knocked out twice. First time was when I tackled Theodore off of the road, and the second time, I..." she trailed off for a second, wondering whether to tell the truth in this situation. She figured telling almost the whole truth, to save everyone a load of grief in the long run, "...think I got lightheaded and tripped over my own feet, and fell backwards cracking my head on a coffee table. Oddly enough, I'm not colorblind anymore, but it worries me all the same. Been feeling dizzy spells since the first knockout, but the second one kind of did me in."

"Well, we'd be safe to say that you have a concussion, but I'd like to examine you first to make sure, if you don't mind." he said, flashlight in hand.

"No, not at all." Fritzie said calmly, straightening up a bit so he could examine her.

"The ability to see in color is quite interesting, though I'd hate to give you false hope, but you have to realize that this might only be a temporary thing brought about by concussion." He said, beginning to shine the light in Fritzie's eyes. "Then again, you might be lucky in a sense that the trauma caused to that part of your brain might be permanent."

After examining her reactions to the light, he put the flashlight down. "Apart from the recent ability to see color, and the dizzy spells, what else have you felt since you hit your head?"

"Ehm, motion sickness, but that would fall under dizziness, same with disoriented fog... uhm, no. Just those two, and the obvious pain and soreness in the back of my head," she said while thinking. "I can understand if the color bit is temporary, I'd probably be a bit bummed, but I'll accept either outcome. As long as I'm fine," she said, smiling weakly. The doctor was incredibly gentle and kind to her, and he could beat **any** vet, that's for damn sure.

"I must admit though, I have treated very few dogs. Chipmunks and humans are more my specialty, however, a vet probably couldn't have helped you out much, so you are very blessed to be in Dave's and my care right now." he said, flashing a grin at Fritzie and noting down on the clipboard.

"Heh, I can also understand that too. I haven't always been like this, I have only been anthropomorphic for the past two years," she said, openly admitting about it.

"Oh, so you are a survivor to the virus that pops up from time to time?" he asked curiously. From a medical standpoint, this was fascinating news.

"Mmhmm. It's quite a nice gift, although, I wish that people were more acceptant about it." Fritzie said with a sigh.

"Yes, well, humans do have trouble accepting something that they don't understand. When Dave first brought the boys here to my office, I point blank asked him why he hadn't taken him to vets instead." He chuckled slightly. "Sure, I heard about them, but I believed that they were a joke. Animatronic or something like that, sort of like The Gorrillaz. Rather the shock of my life when I found out different. Had the second biggest shock when I shook Alvin's hand."

She giggled a bit. "Life is full of surprises."

"Yes, it is. You should have heard Dave when he found the comedy buzzer on Alvin though. He has his hands full with that one," he said with a laugh, then looked at the results of his examination and got a little bit more serious.

"Anyways, your pupils seem to be fine, so you don't have much to worry about. The only thing I am worried about is the fact that you were knocked out twice in such a short period of time. The only thing I can suggest is to get plenty of rest for the next few days. Though if your dizzy spells get worse or your symptoms worsen, be sure to get your family to take you to a doctor, alright?"

Fritzie froze for a second. Her family was all the way on the other side of the country. She didn't want to say anything about the contest or anything, so she let the doctor keep his assumption. "Okay, I'll remember that," she said dryly. Rest a few days, well that was just great. She would spend half of her stay dominantly sleeping. She then thought about Theodore's concussion.

"Um, is his head alright? I kind of tackled him harder than I probably should have, and I broke his leg when I collided with him, not when he fell, so kind of why he's in such bad shape. I head-butted him in the shin at full force." she said shyly and quietly. Doctor Harris rested one of his hands on her shoulder.

"It's only a minor concussion, it wont be much of a bother. As for what you did, don't be ashamed. There is every possibility that he would be in far worse shape than he is in now. This is only the tip of the iceberg of what would happen if he was in fact hit. What you did was very brave." he said reassuringly, then observed the shadow appearing at the door.

Dave carried Theodore back into the room and gently placed him back in the spot where he was before he got x-rayed. He had his turtle neck off, and Dave had it in his arms. Another doctor came into the room with the pictures from the x-ray. Dave reluctantly let go of Theodore and walked over to Doctor Harris to study the x-ray pictures.

"Well, Dave. From the force of the impact, Theodore's only fractured his tibia, as you can see here. While it's not as severe as a complete break," he said, pointing at two fractures, a hairline one by his knee and a more prominent fracture in the center of his leg, "and he though he will not need surgery to correctly reposition his leg, it is still rather painful."

Dave let out a large sigh of relief. Surgery would mean that the boys, not to mention Fritzie, would have to stay at Miss Miller's place until Theodore was well enough to come home. That was the problem of being a single parent to three young boys. 

"For the moment, I will put Theodore into an immobilizing splint, just until the swelling goes down. In a week's time, I would like you to come back and see me so I can put him in a full leg cast. From there, he will have to be in the cast from anywhere between six to eight weeks."

Theodore hung his head slightly. He liked how cool the hard cast idea sounded, it would mean that he would get some attention in school, as well as some well deserved sympathy from Alvin. However, all the same, he didn't like the fact that he would be out of commission for so long.

"Theodore will need a lot of help getting around initially, and will need help getting dressed and bathed. But he's young, his bones will mend and he'll be good as new in no time. Once he is healed though, I suggest against him going back to drumming after a little bit of physical therapy."

Dave clenched one of his fists slightly and took a look at his son. He didn't deserve this.

"Also, I will give you a prescription for some stronger painkillers. He will need them for a week or two. Come with me into my office please."

Dave obediently followed in silence, though his heart was tugging at him not to leave the examination room.

Theodore watched Dave go into the room and sighed. "I wish I knew where Eleanor was." He looked over at Brittany shyly, but his heart dropped to see that Brittany was still expressionless. She must know something about Eleanor, but with Brittany in a state like this, there was no telling what.

"I... think I might have an idea..." Fritzie mumbled. Theodore looked over at Fritzie with a shocked look on his face. "Brittany mentioned, before she went zombie, that she had pigtails, light hair, and a tie, right?"

"Uh-huh!" Theodore said in surprise. It made him perk up.

"On my way here, I was kind of lost. The GPS tracker I have," she said, pulling her GPS out of her pocket, "wasn't making much sense, I was colorblind then, and these aren't very friendly with colorblind folk. Anyways, when I was a few blocks away, I clearly remember seeing someone fit that description, chipmunk and all, skipping in the opposite direction. Maybe she was going to a store or something, because she was heading into the business district in town when I saw her."

Theodore thought for a moment, then sighed. It was half in relief, but half depressed as well. "Oh, now I see. We ran out of muffin mix, and I told her that on the phone, but Dave left to go food shopping. I guess she must have went to go get it herself, because Dave often takes too long when he's out shopping."

He looked worriedly again at Brittany, who was still emotionless, and he sighed. "I just wish that she would have called me and told me that she was going to do that."

Fritzie shrugged. "Maybe she wanted it to be a surprise?"

Theodore sighed. "I guess so. I kind of wish she didn't though."

Fritzie put her arm reassuringly around Theodore. "It's not like she knew that this was going to happen. If you didn't fall into the street, would it have been a nice surprise?"

Theodore tilted his head a little bit. "Yeah, it probably would have been nice."

Dave and Doctor Harris returned into the room. Dave received a small pack of painkillers, and was given a form. Doctor Harris had a tablet and a glass of water in his hands.

"Until you fill that out, those painkillers are Theodore. You should give these to him once every four hours as needed unless he's sleeping." He instructed to Dave. He then walked over to Theodore and gave him the tablet and the glass of water. "In the meantime, take this. This will dumb the pain in your leg, but it may make you drowsy, alright Theodore?"

"Uh-hum." Theodore mumbled, then downed the painkiller. It didn't taste good at all, but he downed it anyways, and chugged down the glass of water as if it were the end of the world.

"Would you like to take something as well Fritzie?" Doctor Harris asked. Fritzie shook her head no.

"I'll be fine. My head doesn't hurt much anymore."

The doctor nodded, then turned his attention to Theodore once again. "Alright, Theodore, what I need you to do now is to sit on the edge of the bed and lift your sore leg up in the air if you can," he said, as Dave helped Theodore towards the edge of the bed. "What I'm going to do is immobilize your leg. I can't put your leg into a hard cast until the swelling has gone down, but this will help your leg feel as comfortable as possible until then. After we're done with this, I will show you how to use your crutches, alright?"

Theodore nodded, then tried lifting his leg up. He moved it up a few inches, then squeaked out in pain and stopped trying. It hurt way too much to move it at all.

Fritzie whimpered a little bit. She just couldn't get used to Theodore being in pain. He was too adorable for his own good, and she couldn't ignore it. She scooted up the bed a little bit and hugged him. She gave him a quick hug, but her cell phone beeped. She instead opened it up, but only to find out that she just hit a button on it. Instead, she decided to look through it.

Dave rest his hand on Theodore's shoulder in an effort to comfort him. "Don't do it if it hurts too much." he said, his voice gentle as he sat down next to him. Do you want to sit in my lap while Doctor Harris does this?"

"Or, I could put the splint on while your leg is hanging down." Doctor Harris said, crouching down with the splint in his hand. "It will be a bit more awkward doing it this way, but it still is possible."

Fritzie stole a glance at what was going on, before fumbling through the missed call list. None, so that meant that Tal didn't call yet. She looked at the time. 5:45 PM.

She went back to the main menu, then noticed a blinking icon on the phone symbolizing that a new picture was taken. She looked at her phone curiously. She didn't take any pictures of Los Angeles.

Theodore shook his head no. What the doctor said would mean that lifting his leg would be more comfortable in the long run. Looking over at Dave, then looking straight into the room, he bit his lip and forced himself to lift his leg up. The pain was overwhelming, but the determination of not having anyone have to burden themselves any more than they had to made it worth it.

Fritzie looked at her phone's exterior. It was a bit battered compared to when she last looked at it when she arrived in Los Angeles. She remembered briefly something about picking it up before she fell out of consciousness the first time. She went to the picture menu tab and decided to check out this new picture.

In the picture was a dark green sedan, with a clear shot of a license plate.

Fritzie's eye twitched and nearly dropped the phone in her lap, and shook her head no. She looked at the picture again. In the picture, she saw both of her feet facing the opposite direction of the phone. But the car... it was so... clear.

She remembered seeing brief glimpses of the dark color sedan within the last moments, but since this picture was in _color_, it didn't mean anything unless somebody else that could see in color could point it out. For all she knew, she could have accidentally taken a picture of somebody else's car when she checked it at the airport. It didn't explain the feet, but hey.

She looked eagerly at Theodore. If anyone would know what the car looked like any better than him, they probably weren't in easy contact. She waited eagerly for the splint to be fitted on. Asking Theodore something now would probably be a bad idea.

A proud look appeared on Dave's face. He was sure that even Alvin would have a hard time matching how brave Theodore was in a situation like this. The doctor worked as fast as possible without compromising the integrity of the splint, but after a few moments, it was fitted on just right.

Finally, he said, "Alright Theodore. You did a good job, you can rest your leg again. There will be some movement allowed in the knee, not much, but enough to allow you to get a little more comfortable if need be."

Theodore let out a loud groan when he relaxed himself a little bit.

Dave hugged Theodore and ruffled his hair fringe a little bit. "Would you like to rest a moment before you try out your new crutches?"

Theodore weakly nodded and sighed. He felt really sleepy now, but he wasn't sure if it was because of the medicine, or just purely the effort. Fritzie immediately caught on to the sudden drowsiness and decided to make a move on her discovery before Theodore was opt to pass out.

Fritzie put an arm around Theodore and dug up the picture again. "Uh, sorry to bug you dude, but uhm..." she said, showing Theodore the picture. Theodore opened an eye and looked at the phone curiously. "Does this car look familiar?"

Theodore looked at the picture puzzlingly, then gasped in realization. "How did you do that? I thought you were tackling me!"

Fritzie stared wide eyed at the cell phone. Without any further hesitation, she was already skidding out the door into the hallway and bolting for the waiting room before anyone else realized what was happening.

* * *

**What happens next?� Chapter 12 will be released tomorrow afternoon before I go to work.� By that time, you all should be just getting home from school if you do go that is.� :P**


	13. Chapter 12: Fritzie's Finding

**As per usual, I appreciate all of the wonderful reviews I got for the last chapter. Oh, and I really like the shoutout in your new story CrazyCartoonGirl. "The Time Travel Adventure" seems rather catchy. **

**Anyways, I'm kind of mixed up with my emotions right now, I touched up on it on DeviantART why, so um. Reviews make me a little happier, enough said.**

**I don't entirely know for sure if I will release Chapter 13 tonight or not, it depends on how I feel after work today, and if my mood lightens up. If I don't release Chapter 13 tonight, I will have it released tomorrow. However, I will see if I can tonight.**

**Oh, and if I can get over this mood I'm in, I will also start working on story panels and releasing them if I get any of them done tonight.**

**Alright, cheers, enjoy the next chapter.**

-Narf

**--------------------Chapter 12: Fritzie's Finding-------------------**

Theodore blinked dumbly on how fast Fritzie was out that door. Dave spun around in mid conversation with Doctor Harris to see Fritzie began to skitter down the hall.

"Why do I get the feeling that I just missed something important?" Dave groaned. "Alright, you rest for a bit Theodore. While the Doctor checks out Brittany, I'm going to go see what the heck spurred that outburst. When I come back, then we'll have a lesson on your crutches, okay?"

Theodore nodded, and the doctor nodded in agreeance.

Dave stood in one spot and thought for a second. 'What could have triggered that outburst?' he thought to himself, then he slowly and reluctantly walked out of the room, going back once to see if Theodore was fine, then walked towards the lobby.

* * *

Fritzie ran down the hallway at double time after skidding out the door. Within a few seconds, she made it to the waiting room door, and jumped up, opened the doorknob and skidded out into the lobby. She started looking frantically around for Simon. She turned around, realizing that she was facing the opposite direction, she walked over and proudly handed the cell phone into his sleepy hands.

Both Alvin and Simon woke up and began looking around wildly wondering what was going on. Alvin looked at Fritzie and raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I see _she's_ better." Alvin grumbled. It didn't fix the fact that Theodore was still hurt... or the new realization that Brittany hadn't come out either, which means that something was wrong with her too.

Fritzie bounced up and down a few times excitedly, then started to feel slightly dizzy. "This is the car!" she squeaked out happily. Alvin took notice that Ms. Furlington wasn't there anymore, which meant that she wouldn't have to input her two cents into it this time.

Fritzie then felt another large dizzy spell. The dizzy spells have started up all over again. She cuffed her eyes and crouched down slightly, groaning. Acting on impulse wasn't the smartest thing in the world to do in her condition, and she realized that she should have given Dave the cell phone instead. But as her own punishment for her reactions, she stood upright again and gritted her teeth. She was not going to give into this one. Not this time.

"Dude," she said, breathing heavily and unsteadily, "...look up the license plate."

Simon blinked stupidly. He had taken a light nap because everyone was taking so long in there. "Huh, who? Why? What car?"

Hearing that clicked in Alvin's mind. He grinned evilly, and rubbed his hands together. The wheels began to turn for a revenge on this guy. Despite his disappointment in Eleanor, he knew that he couldn't bring it to himself to plan a revenge on her, so he had to get revenge on _somebody_, and this opened up the floodgate in his mind for schemes.

"Simon! don't you get it?" Alvin proclaimed, looking at Fritzie, who was quite winded now. "Fritzie caught the culprit red handed!"

He took the cell phone out of Simon's sleepy hands. He took a look at the picture of the car and grinned even more furiously. It matched perfectly with the car he saw screaming off down the block. "This is even the car I saw leaving the scene, this **has** to be it!"

Now _that_ woke Simon up. He got up and snatched the cell phone out of Alvin's hands, and stared at the picture. "Is this a joke?" Simon asked in disbelief.

"No, Alvin ain't lying to you. Theodore confirmed it." she said, almost out of breath. She gritted her teeth and tried to wave off the dizziness she just inflicted on herself. Alvin ran over and glomped Fritzie.

"You rock!" Alvin said happily, hugging Fritzie tightly. Fritzie blinked a moment, then felt much of the dizziness just lift from her. Fritzie began to wonder, why hasn't Dave come running into the lobby yet to scold her for her impulses.

After Alvin was done hugging her, she sat down and put her head in her lap. 'After that little outburst, no more acting on impulse again... at least... not until after a day's rest.' she thought to herself.

Simon stared at the picture again. He studied the letter and number combination on the license plate, trying to remember them before the cell phone would have to pass out of his hands. "How in the world did you manage to get that picture Fritzie? We could alert the police about an attempted hit and run right now!" Or, as what Alvin was thinking, getting revenge for their little brother.

"Well, uhh, my cell phone fell out of my pocket and it must have caught a picture of-" she began to explain, but she saw Dave and grinned shyly.

"Alright, what did I miss. What was so important that you had to run out and stumble out here like that?" Dave scolded, giving a worried look. "I'm pretty sure that you aren't meant to run around like a lunatic like that!"

"Yeah, I know I wasn't supposed to do that. I'm sorry, it was an impulse. I do that sometimes, as much as I don't like to. I told myself no more doing that for a day or two. Anyways..." she trailed off, finally giving into the sleepy feeling she was getting, "...I'll let Simon explain my little discovery. I should have directly told you about my finding, but like I said, it was impulse. I have little control over... those..." she said tiredly, then began to nod off. She wanted to go to sleep for a few minutes.

After Simon explained to Dave about Fritzie's findings, a relieved, but stern look crossed his face.

"I'll write that down and go to the police tomorrow," he said, careful to look at both Simon and Alvin right in the eye. "I don't want any of you, Simon, to research on this, nor you, Alvin, to take matters into your own hands. This is a matter strictly for the police, am I clear?"

"Perfectly clear, Dave." Simon said, with a convincingly innocent look on his face. Alvin gulped and nodded.

'Why do I even bother...' Dave thought to himself, as he began to make his way back to the office. "Just keep an eye on her. We won't be much longer. I'm very proud of you boys."

Alvin and Simon nodded, and once Dave was out of earshot, Alvin and Simon locked eyes. Fritzie began sleeping very lightly.

"I will have the owner by morning." Simon said with a smirk. Alvin shook his head in disbelief.

"You mean, you are willingly going to throw caution into the wind for this one?" Alvin said in disbelief. Simon raised an eyebrow.

"And since when do you complain about that?" Simon said eagerly. Alvin let a furious grin plaster onto his face.

"Morning, eh?"

"Morning, perhaps sooner." Simon said with a grin.

Alvin thought for a second. He liked the sooner bit of it. A thought popped into his head. "What would a near hit and run be called legally, anyways? Road rage? You're more in tune with technical things like that."

"Alvin, we are rock stars, we could get the driver for the smallest thing." he said quietly, adjusting his glasses a little bit. "Yeah, it probably could be called road rage, and the fact that there were two injuries from this, we could sue for damages. Somehow though, I have a feeling that's not what's on your mind, am I right?"

Alvin slung his hat on backwards and raised one foot up, pointing his arms out on either side. _The crane stance._ He wanted to give that good for nothing driver a good thrashing; if not just for what he did to Theodore, but also to Fritzie, and inevitably Brittany.

"Money with a beating sounds even better than just a beating!" Alvin whispered excitedly. He got out of his crane maneuver and began laughing. Simon began laughing.

"Knowing you, by the time we are done with him, it would be impossible for us to sue him, but it does sound kind of fitting, doesn't it?" he said in between laughs. Normally, he would do anything to avoid Alvin's hair brained schemes, but this time, he would be willingly giving input to this scheme. People needed to realize that the only people who were allowed, although reluctantly, to make Theodore cry, were his brothers.

Fritzie peeked an eye open. "I hope you guys know what you are doing. Revenge or not, this guy could still be extremely dangerous," she commented, then began trying to nod of back to sleep again. That was hard to do in a clinic lobby.

"Trust me, Fritzie. We won't be doing anything that isn't well thought out and researched this time, will we Alvin?" he said with a stern tone to Alvin. Alvin nodded in agreeance. They both thought about what could end up happening if they get caught though, which was bound to happen by Dave. Simon was already thinking about the punishment... they would be grounded for the next two summers. But it was so worth it.

"The question is, when can we carry out our revenge," he said quietly, thinking to himself about the latent possibilities, "that's if the culprit lives near us. And if he does, what kind of revenge to carry out." Alvin couldn't exactly make promises about the researching bit, but it sounded great this time, and with Simon _willingly_ helping out, it would mean that this plan would work out potentially absolutely beautifully. It still sounded like it could be hard without compromising though. Usually, this is where Theodore would come in and try to rough out the edges, but he knew that Theodore wouldn't be a part of this one. Could he and Simon actually compromise this between themselves? Was Simon actually being serious about throwing caution into the wind for this?

He put his hands in his pocket, and felt a strange object in it. He looked in his sweater pocket, and saw the green hat that he grabbed earlier. He looked at it and decided to wait for the right moment to put it on his little brother's head, and continued to think about a suiting revenge idea.

But before Alvin could truly contemplate on it, Dave and company came out the door.

Theodore was a little shy about the idea of using crutches for the next two months, but after Dave coaxed Brittany out the door, Theodore shook his head and turned to face the reality of it all.

He shyly and reluctantly came out the door into the lobby, and was immediately greeted by a hug from Alvin. Alvin had his hat on backwards, and had a furious grin on his face.

'What is he planning...? He has his hat on backwards and had a huge grin on his face,' he thought, shocked by the immediate hug by Alvin. 'Bah, who am I kidding, he wouldn't do anything to me now.'

He then felt something gently placed on his head, and Alvin whispered "present" in his ear. He narrowed his eyes, then felt around to see what this object was that fit on his head so snugly. With the medicine kicking in, it could be anything on his head. He took the object off. It was a hat, a green hat. He put it back on and giggled.

"Thank you, Alvin." he said quietly. He hugged Alvin back.

Simon got up out of his chair, and smiled that Alvin was actually true to his word about giving Theodore his hat back. He casually walked over. His conversation with Alvin was all but forgotten.

"So, what did the doctor say Theodore?" he asked in concern. He saw his brother's sweater was off and he had a splint on his left leg. Simon frowned a little bit. He'd like to say that he was surprised to see Theodore's leg in a splint, but he remembered his conversation with Dave back at the house.

Theodore sighed after Alvin and him were done hugging. Alvin still had a grin on his face, so it wasn't just the warming gift that was making him smile. He guessed now that he was planning some sort of scheme. He turned his attention to Simon.

"He said that it's broken in two places. Going to get a full leg cast in about a week or so." he said, looking gloomily at the floor. He sighed. "Why did this have to happen a a few weeks summer vacation?" he muttered. He didn't like the fact that he would be able to do much, include cook, for a few weeks.

Simon rested a hand on Theodore's shoulder. "I'm sorry Theodore, this shouldn't have happened to you." His butterball brother was the last person who deserved anything like this. Simon had an evil twinge in his eyes, and when Theodore caught a look in them, he knew right then and there that Simon was in on whatever Alvin was planning, and if both of them were in this, there had to be a good reason. "Hopefully it will come off before the break ends though, right? I mean, you will still be able to do some things over the summer, right?"

Theodore nodded, then remembered Fritzie's sudden outburst. Fritzie was sleeping lightly again, and looked over at Alvin again. Alvin lessened his grin a little and tilted his head. He looked at Simon, who was hiding a smirk. Not a devious smirk at him, but he was plotting something. It all clicked. Revenge?

Theodore widened his eyes a little. Simon nodded. Theodore looked down at the floor again.

"Be careful, guys." he whispered. Simon gently lifted Theodore's chin up and raised both of his eyebrows. The look read, 'Aren't I always?'

Dave wouldn't say he was naive, he knew that Alvin was planning something, and Simon would probably be dragged into it as well. He just hoped that he could stop whatever it was before it could really manifest. He changed the subject on everyone, as Theodore went to the lobby chairs and sat down.

"So, Theodore, did you decide on what to eat? Or should we leave it for tomorrow?" he asked. He didn't want Theodore and Fritzie to fall asleep in their food, but all the same, he promised them.

Theodore was feeling a bit drowsy, but he perked up at the sound of that. "Tonight! Tonight!" he squeaked out eagerly. He hadn't eaten anything since breakfast... and that one cookie he ate before Alvin snatched them all. He was still a little sleepy, but he would rather stuff himself and go sleep as pleasantly as he could instead of going to sleep hungry and wake up repeatedly overnight due to hunger and pain. "I have to think about where to go though."

Fritzie woke up at the mentioning of food. She hadn't eaten anything at all today, not counting the bottle of Mountain Dew that she bought from the convenience store, and it was really late back at home. She wanted to get a bite to eat, provided they could find a restaurant where they could let her in.

"I'm hungry too," she said, stretching a little bit. "I haven't eaten anything all day, and I bet that most of the wooziness is from hunger."

Alvin hated to admit it, but he was hungry too, and he was relieved that Theodore decided to choose food over sleep for a change. It gave Alvin time to think more clearly about this revenge plan. He normally acted on impulse and would wing it, but this one called for a more structured and deviously planned out revenge. He wanted this to run as smoothly as possible.

He looked over at Brittany, who was still emotionless and silent, and he sighed loudly. His heart cried out for her, he felt awful about how he acted earlier that day. Brittany, was well, acting like herself, what could she expect from him? But he began working in a little bit of a revenge in his heart, for her. He was more afraid of Brittany silent like that instead of her normal, annoyingly obnoxious self.

He then looked wearily at Dave. He knew what Dave was thinking in his mind. Alvin is planning something and is going to drag Simon in with him. Well, little did Dave know, Simon volunteered to join in, and it wasn't an exaggeration this time.

Simon was hungry too, because of the incident, they missed lunch. And with only a bag of chips since breakfast, he was surprised that his stomach wasn't audibly growling.

Dave broke the small silence. "It very probably is Fritzie. I'm sorry your stay hasn't started of with the best of sorts. When you're feeling better, we can sit down and work out a way to make it up to you. How does that sound?"

"Great!" Fritzie said happily, jumping out of her seat. Her heart leapt about the fact that Dave would really work something out with her. She knew what she wanted, but she decided to give it a little bit of time to wait.

Dave then turned to Theodore, who was getting out of his seat. "While you're thinking about what we are going to eat for dinner Theodore, we'll drop Brittany off at Miss Miller's and let her know what happened alright?" Theodore nodded.

"Come on Theodore, we'll help you into the car." Simon interjected, as everyone began clearing the lobby.

Fritzie stood proudly about the idea of an extended stay, but just as everyone began to leave, the noise that she _didn't_ want to hear began ringing in her pocket.

Fritzie stopped cold in her tracks. 'Oh no! I forgot to call Tal! This ain't good!'

* * *

**What's my reaction to the whole bit? You'll find out within the nexttwenty-fourhours. (Hopefully sooner.)**


	14. Chapter 13: The 'Dreaded' Phone Call

**Thank you for the usual reviews, Nikki and Dice. :)**

**Work ended up being a strain on me, that and I kept getting sidetracked today. Here's Chapter 13, I'm kind of glad that I could get it up online tonight.**

**Anyways, don't feel like talking much tonight. I ended up getting hit for no reason twice at work today, and I have work at an earlier time tomorrow, I'm tired and a little annoyed. I'll try to get Chapter 14 online early tomorrow afternoon. Once I get to Chapter 15, because itis in fact,the shortest chapter of the whole story, I will upload Chapter 16 as well. I dont want to spoonfeed with a 900-1200 word chapter when I get to it, considering my average of about 3000 words.**

**Please leave me a few reviews to make my already dull and getting duller week that much nicer. Enjoy the chapter.**

**----------------Chapter 13: The 'Dreaded' Phone Call----------------**

I got home from work, a little bit late. It was 9:15 PM, so if Fritzie was going to call late, she had an extra fifteen minutes to do so.

I threw my backpack off in my room and walked over to the answering machine, which is on a dresser next to my bed. Two missed calls. Cool, so Fritzie must have called while I was gone... and maybe Cameron too or something.

I had a strange and vivid dream when I came home from the airport. I dreampt about Fritzie tackling someone from out in front of a car, and they were both hurt. I woke myself up out of it, and shook my head. I had been having that dream for about three weeks now, but never as vivid as that. I could actually make out details, a dark green car, a pudgy figure... it all happened so fast, I couldn't make out exactly what the figure was. I rolled my eyes and went back to sleep.

After that, I began dreaming about other things, it was pleasant. I was at a mixing table experimenting with some cool sounds. I was even making other people laugh at my dry sarcasm. I decided to keep that one until I had to get up for work.

Work that afternoon was kind of edgy. Most of my co-workers were in an edgy mood, which meant that closing that night was going to be a total drag. I was happy that I took a nap when I got home at eleven that morning, I probably would be butchered by ten if I didn't.

I listened to the messages. First message was Cameron. He wanted to know if I could play Halo with him tomorrow. Whatever, sounded like a fun idea to me.

The second message, however, was just a telemarketer, and a wrong number telemarketer, mind you. Ever since we moved into this house, we kept getting phone calls for someone named 'Patricia Jones.' After two years, it gets redundant very quickly.

I looked through the caller-id. No attempted calls from Fritzie. It probably meant that Fritzie was enjoying herself, and completely forgot to call, which was absolutely expected. It worries me no end when she does things like that, but it's completely expected. After all, she is a small dog.

I punched in the number to Fritzie's cell phone, and waited for it to ring.

* * *

"Uh, I'll meet you guys out at the car. I got to take this call." Fritzie called out, running to the other side of the lobby. She looked over her shoulder. "I'll be out in a moment, this is kind of important!"

Dave shrugged, then herded everyone out of the waiting room. When she was sure everyone left, Fritzie answered the phone.

"Ehehe, hi Tal." she stammered, trying not to sound sick.

"You sound absolutely chipper," I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes. "Don't tell my your stay there sucks so far."

"I wouldn't exactly say that... some things have happened, thats all-" Fritzie said, then covering her mouth.

"Yeah, busted!" I growled into the phone. "You better tell me the whole bit of it. I did _not_ just send you to Los Angeles, _by yourself_, to find out that you had a rough start. What, do they annoy you?"

"No! That's not it at all..." she said dizzily, she didn't like where this conversation was going at all.

I softened my glare into the phone. "What's the matter, you sound sick." I said softly.

She sat down against the wall. "Let me explain to you what happened. You're probably not going to believe it."

I rolled my eyes. "What's your excuse?"

"I was nearly hit by a car." she mumbled. I nearly dropped the phone.

"Are you joking?" I said worriedly. "What do you mean _almost_?"

"Theodore fell out into the street when I arrived at their place, and I tackled him onto the other side of the street before he could get hit by a car."

My eyes widened. I had been having that dream for three weeks now. I shook my head in disbelief.

"I know that sounds kind of absurd, but-"

"Are you alright?" I asked worriedly. "You sound really bad right now, are you hurt?"

"I got knocked out during that bout, but I wasn't hit... or I don't think I was hit. I broke Theodore's leg in the process though." she said, cringing to what my reaction would be.

I sighed. "It's better that you broke his leg instead of a car mutilating him. Is this Dave guy coping with it alright?"

"They're giving me the heroes welcome, Tal," she said with a sigh. I couldn't help but grin.

"Is there anything else?" I asked. She nodded, but of course, I can't see through the phone.

"Yeah, I got knocked out a second time. Tripped over my own two feet and cracked the back of my head on a coffee table. The first knockout didn't do much, but the second knockout is why I feel like crap right now."

I gasped. "How bad is it? Did you see a vet about it?"

"I'm at a health department right now, you called me after I went in for treatment. As far as I know, I can see in color now, and that seems to be the main damage."

That time I did drop the phone. Seeing in color? The story sounded almost bogus now. I picked the phone up again.

"You can see in _**color**_?" I asked in disbelief.

"Well, I can see things that I can't explain. It's not all grayscale anymore, there's some added things in it that I can't comprehend, and everything seems brighter now, so I'm guessing that this is what color is?"

I blinked worriedly. "How bad is this concussion? And you're at a health department? They didn't take you to a vet?"

"No, you're forgetting, I'm currently with a trio of anthropomorphic chipmunks, remember? They figured that it would be better to see a doctor instead of going to a vet. And anyways, he willingly treated me. He said that I had a moderate concussion, and that I should rest for a while," she told me.

I sighed again. This was totally unexpected, and nerve racking. And the worst of it is that I had to go back to work in a few minutes. There was no way I could call out of this shift, and nobody would come in and cover a closing shift at 9:30 at night.

"Is the damage permanent?" I asked finally.

"He said it could be, but seeing in color wouldn't be a bad thing." Fritzie said, sounding a little happier. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. I'm in good hands."

"Are you sure you are going to be fine? I'll even come myself and get you tomorrow. You mean too much to me! I'm willing to even throw my job away for you." I said dryly into the phone. This whole thing sounded like a screenplay to a movie or something, and the fact that she was in Hollywood right now made it sound even more like a screenplay, but I knew that it wasn't.

"I'll be fine, I promise," she said, getting up and beginning to walk over to the door. "Would you like to talk to Dave about it?" she asked finally.

"I wish I could, but I have to get going back to work now."

"Okay, I'll call you tomorrow. I'm feeling real tired right now anyways, and they are waiting on me..."

Alvin peered his head into the door of the lobby and spotted Fritzie. He rolled his eyes. "Come on!" he yelled out impatiently. Fritzie pointed a finger up, meaning wait a second.

"...and I'll have you talk to Dave about it tomorrow morning, er, afternoon. I'm sure both of you would like to talk about what happened today, being my big brother and all."

"You **bet** I want to talk to Dave about this." I said worriedly, looking into the phone. "I'll talk to you tomorrow morning, and don't forget to call me!"

"I wont, night Tal," she said, like she wanted to get the phone conversation done with already.

"Night, take care of yourself hun." I said, hanging up the phone.

Fritzie closed her phone and threw it back into her pocket. She ran a little bit to catch up to Alvin. "Alright, I'm coming Alvin, sorry."

"Theodore chose one of our favorite Italian restaurants, just to clue you in on what you missed," he said bluntly, putting his hands into his pockets and walked towards the car. Fritzie obediently followed.

"Is everything alright?" A concerned look flashed across Dave's face as he finished securing Theodore into the front seat of the car. Dave and Simon had already secured Brittany into the car, and because of Theodore and Brittany's current states, he made them wear seat belts. Simon then climbed into the car and sat down next to Brittany. He waited for Fritzie and Alvin to get into the car, and Simon felt inquisitive about Fritzie's phone call, but knew better than to pry in on her conversation.

"Um, my big brother just called. He's a bit confused about what happened, but he's real lenient about it. Still, he would like to talk to you about it tomorrow," she said, getting into the car on her own and sitting down next to Simon. She put a seat belt on for safe measure. Her dizzy spells were basically gone, but she couldn't trust it. Alvin then jumped into the car and sat next to Fritzie.

Dave nodded. "That's perfectly understandable, considering what happened today. You should have told him to hang on though, we could have had a chat before we went off to get dinner." He knew perfectly well how he would react if he was in her guardian's shoes, and it wouldn't be very calmly at all.

He called during his meager break from work. He would have liked to, but he's a closer tonight, and his coworkers are extremely edgy tonight. He can't just call out now, and he really needs his job..." she said sighing, "...even if it is _only_ fast food. So he'll talk to you about tomorrow. I know it's going to bother him at work, but he at least knows that I'm okay. He somewhat didn't believe what I told him though."

Dave himself then jumped into the car and started up the engine. "Alright, I'll talk to him tomorrow about it then. Let him know that there is nothing to worry about. I can't thank you enough for saving Theodore," he said, his mind still stuck in 'what if' mode. What if Fritzie didn't win the contest, what if Fritzie hadn't gotten slightly lost? "He's just worried about you. If I was him, it would take all my self control to not jump onto the next flight here."

Fritzie twiddled her thumbs. "He said the same thing." As the car started moving, Fritzie put her head into her hands and sighed.

Dave chuckled. "That means that he cares about you," he said, looking over his shoulder as they pulled out of the parking lot.

Fritzie smiled, then peered in between the driver and passenger seats and looked at Theodore. "Oh, by the way, Theodore?" Theodore looked over his shoulder. Fritzie grinned. "Nice touch on the Italian food, dude."

Theodore grinned. "Haha, news flies fast around here, eh?" he said, giggling.

"Hey, um, do you mind if I call you Teddy?" Fritzie asked. He did remind her of a teddy bear. Theodore blushed a little bit.

"Nobody really calls me Teddy, so sure. That sounds cool!" he said shyly. He then faced forward and began thinking about the Italian buffet they were going to. His eyes lit up about all of the Italian food he could eat. His family were all-star customers there, despite how infrequently they went.

Simon was looking forward to dinner there. "It's a really nice place," he said to Fritzie, "the buffet I mean. The food there rocks, and Theodore picked a place that everyone could agree on."

Fritzie giggled, then put her head into her arms again and sighed.

As they arrived at Brittany's house, which was a very short drive from the health department, Fritzie perked her head up again. This car ride seemed much nicer and a more normal speed than the drive there.

Dave got out of the car. "Alright guys, I'll be right back. I'll let Miss Miller know as quickly as I can about what's happened this afternoon and to keep her eye on Brittany. Will you four be alright for a few minutes by yourselves?" he asked, helping Brittany out of the car.

Everyone nodded, and Simon said, "Of course we will Dave." Personally, he wanted as little to do with Miss Miller as he could.

Once Dave was out of earshot, Simon began whispering to Alvin over Fritzie. "So, you started on a plan yet?"

"Oh, I have a few." Alvin whispered back with a smug look on his face. "We can't enact any of them until you find out where the guy lives, but I'm considering sabotage now, instead of a royal beat-down." Alvin grinned. Simon grinned back. Sabotage was his specialty. He wasn't overly fond of violence, even if it had its uses from time to time. However, you could get away with far more with a sabotage before getting caught.

Fritzie grinned too. After all of the hell that broke loose today, she wanted to take part of this plan so badly, even if it was a double edge sword. She probably could help out after a nice dinner and a few hours sleep.

"If you guys let me get a few hours sleep, I'll see what I can do." Fritzie said quietly with an even fiercer grin. Simon softened his look a little bit.

"But-"

"And," Fritzie said, cutting Simon off, "you two can't stop me. I have made up my mind, and the only way I will back down is if I do it on my lonesome."

Alvin and Simon traded a smirk when Fritzie demanded in. Simon offered Fritzie his hand.

"Welcome to the team." he said, shaking hands firmly with their new comrade. Alvin was about to offer his hand too, but hesitated when he saw Dave come out the front door.

Theodore looked over his shoulder and sighed. He kind of guessed that Alvin and Simon were planning a revenge, but this confirmed it, and he now knew that this was a sabotage. And with Fritzie's eagerness to help, it surprised him, even though he knew better than that. He sighed again, then looked out driver's window and hoped that Eleanor would come running outside. He still didn't know exactly where she went after all. What if the assumption he made in the doctor's office wasn't exactly true?

Dave came out the front door, trying to leave so he could get back to the car, but Miss Miller came bursting out the front door.

"Ohhh, are you sure you'll be alright, Dayfid? I wouldn't mind watching the boys for you for a bit while you get Theodore settled into a routine!" she yelled out across the lawn. Simon shuddered at the mere thought of it, even if it meant that he would get to spend time with Jeanette.

"No, no. It's alright, but thank you, Miss Miller," he said as he stumbled backwards onto the lawn. "Besides, I promised the boys I'd take them out to dinner, I can't let them wait much longer. Call me when Brittany is feeling better!" He called over his shoulder as he all but ran back to the car.

"Okay, Dayfid. And Dayfid, get some sleep, will ya?" Miss Miller called out as she strutted herself back inside and closed the door.

Theodore saddened when he saw Dave enter the car. "Where's Eleanor, Dave?" he mumbled. He wanted to make sure that she was alright, even if Fritzie saw her earlier. He twiddled his thumbs shyly.

"Miss Miller said that she was still at soccer practice. I'll bring you over tomorrow to see her if you'd like," he said, stroking Theodore's hair fringe. "Miss Miller said that she would let her know about what happened when she gets home," he said as he put his seat belt back on and started up the engine.

Theodore nodded. He was relieved that she was alright, but it still didn't justify why she didn't call him first. He stole a glance out the front window as the car started moving, and he sighed, then sunk into the front seat.

Dave looked over at Theodore. Dave knew that his heart was going out for her, but was too quiet to openly admit it. Dave then focused on driving again, to the Italian buffet out in the business district in town.

"Alright guys, who's hungry?" Dave called out cheerfully. Everyone perked up again.

"Me!" the kids called out in unison, and Theodore decided to let Eleanor go for now. She was alright, and thats all that counted.

"Glad to hear it guys." Dave said as he drove back out the way he came. He was getting rather hungry himself.


	15. Chapter 14: Homecoming

**Alright, there seems to be a bunch of confusion from multiple people about Brittany's state since Late Chapter 7/Early Chapter 8. She went into catatonic shock, which is a medical condition. Basically, the events that happened was so overwhelming (talking dog/missing sister/Theodore injured) that she went intoa state where she couldn't speak or express herself. If she was normal, you can expect her to be a major headache, but she's only silent because of a temporary medical condition.**

**Another question, why would Theodore be upset about what Alvin and Simon were plotting in the last chapter. He isnt entirely upset, but something that Theodore's character shines with is endless sympathy for others. Take in AATC meets Wolfman for example. When they first go off to school initially, he doesnt ask for an Avacado with his lunch because his bully Nathan hates avacados. He might not like him, but he doesn't want to offend his attacker. So its half endless sympathy, half not wanting to offend his attacker.**

**And yay, I have one person looking forward to a sequel. The sequel might be just as long as this story, so one definite yes won't be enough though, but it helps tip it towards writing it.**

**Anyways, one final droning day of work before I have _one _day off. I'm still not entirely feeling well, so I dont know. If I upload Chapter 15 today, count on 16 being released at the same time as well. Chapter 15 is only 800 words plus any authors notes. Warm me with some reviews please! And enjoy the chapter.**

-Narf

**----------------------Chapter 14: Homecoming------------------------**

After everyone arrived home, they piled somewhat sleepily out of the car and made their way inside. They were at the buffet for a good two hours, absolutely stuffing themselves and making a good time about it.

"That was extremely satisfying." Fritzie said sleepily, patting her full stomach. Surprisingly, the restaurant owner was totally okay with Fritzie coming in, and Dave didn't even need to explain the significance of it. Of course, when he learned the truth of it, he made Fritzie into an all-star customer as well, and she even got to eat for free.

All the meanwhile, the five of them, Dave included, absolutely _tore_ the buffet a new one. Theodore couldn't have picked a better choice to eat out.

Alvin and Simon were not quite as sleepy as the other three, and Alvin bolted up the stairs, and quickly followed by Simon.

Fritzie spun around twice as the boys sped past her and up the stairs. Theodore came in slowly behind them, looked at the stairs and blinked. He wanted to go upstairs, but all the same, he didn't.

Dave walked up behind Theodore and put his hand on his shoulder. "If you don't mind me saying so Theodore... at least until you are comfortable on your crutches, I think it would be wise if I made up the sofa bed in the living room. Don't you?"

Theodore sighed in relief. "Sounds good to me, Dave."

Fritzie looked around dumbly at what just happened with the other two rushing past her like that. She knew why, but she wished that they were a little more careful, they nearly knocked her over! She made a beeline for one of the two armchairs in the living room, and sat down in it. After eating she felt much better, and the dizzy spells, along with majority of the headache vanished basically to a trace. However, with the two rushing past at a blistering enough speed, it made her dizzy just from spinning around.

"I'm sorry about that pair." Dave said, sighing as he walked over to the couch with Theodore. "Sometimes, I just don't know what gets into them. I'll just make up the couch bed for Theodore then give you a tour around the house, since _they_ seem too preoccupied." Dave said, referring to Alvin and Simon as he began to set up the bed. "There's a guest room in the attic if you'd like. Oh, and did you have any belongings you needed help with?"

Theodore struggled a little bit to get into a comfortable position on the bed. The splint was set at an off angle compared to what he was used to sleeping to. However, he figured that he would have to get comfortable with it, because he was going to have to live with it for a while.

"In the attic?" Fritzie said fearfully. In her condition, that sounded like a real scary experience. She shook her head, then transformed back into a normal dog for the first time since the accident earlier this afternoon. "No thank you, I'm incredibly resourceful. I can find a place to sleep in just about anywhere."

She morphed back into her anthropomorphic form, taking note that she could see in color as a normal dog as well.

Dave blinked at what Fritzie's little 'trick.' He began to wonder if that had any influence on today's events. "Are you sure that you will be comfortable sleeping down here? We do have a guest room for that very reason."

Theodore blinked dumbly over what Fritzie did too. He figured that he would have to simmer his curiosity though, after he took a nice... relaxing...

He began to start snoring lightly almost immediately. He was so tired that he fell asleep in mid thought.

Fritzie smiled when Theodore fell asleep. "I kind of don't feel safe sleeping so high up in the state I'm in. You wouldn't mind if I slept in this here armchair, would you? It's nice and cozy."

"No, of course I don't mind Fritzie, whatever you prefer." Dave said, looking curiously at Fritzie.

Fritzie got up, feeling somewhat unsteady. She was more tired than dizzy at this point, and she wanted to just go to sleep, but she wanted to know where everything was, just in case 'something' happened in the middle of the night.

"Oh, yeah, belongings. Um, don't worry about that." she said, taking off one of her shirts and her pair of jeans. "I was wearing all of my belongings."

Dave looked dumbly at Fritzie. Fritzie grinned.

"I pack lightly, the only things that I needed was the second pair of clothes, my GPS, cell phone, Tal's MP3 player, and the stuff you mailed me, plus this letter that I received at the airport." she said bluntly, taking out the letter that the dog at the airport gave her out of her jeans pocket. "The letter here says that people legally have to accept me as a customer for business, but luckily enough, I never had to use it."

Dave laughed about it. "Well, you really prepared yourself for this trip, didn't you?"

Fritzie looked a little downcast at her feet. "Not exactly, although I'm real happy I didn't bring any luggage." Fritzie sighed. "Oh, sorry, I would love a tour around the house.

* * *

Alvin bolted up the stairs, nearly colliding with Fritzie in the process, and flew into his shared room. Immediately, he checked to see if the computer was on. It was on, it was just in sleep mode, and Simon doesn't like having screen-savers.

He was real eager though, he wanted to find out where this jerk lived. He could only hope that Simon remembered the license plate number, because he had totally forgotten about it.

Simon also bolted into the house, just a few seconds behind Alvin. He also nearly collided with Fritzie, and grunted a quick apology before continuing to run up the stairs. He saw Alvin already fussing with the computer, then saw Alvin back away from the computer and gesture for him to sit down.

Unlike his older brother, Simon remembered the license plate perfectly. It felt nice to have photographic memory, because he wouldn't dare ask for Fritzie's cell phone now. That would make things suspicious.

Simon pulled up his customized database search program quickly, and typed in the exact letter and number combination on the license plate.

"Alright, just give it a couple of minutes to run the search, and then we'll see what we've come up with. I might need to hack into a few databases to get an actual address, though." Simon smirked at his brother. "In the meantime, what have _you_ planned out so far?"

"Sound's good to me, but be on your guard," Alvin said, ignoring the 'planning bit' of Simon's question and seized the mouse from his hand. He minimized the database search window, then began loading up the RuneScape webpage. "Dave could show up in the room unannounced at any time."

"I thought that's why you were up here," Simon grunted, closing the RuneScape website and opening up Microsoft Word instead, "to play lookout. "Don't you think that Dave would find it just a little strange that I would be playing a video game?"

"Well, excuuuuse me! I'm only trying to help out." Alvin said crossly, making an unsatisfied 'humph' noise.

"Besides, I didn't quite finish my project anyways. I was almost done before all of this happened," Simon said with a sigh.

Alvin began pacing, trying to think of any glimmering plan out what he knew, which right now, was close to nothing. He knew that the car was a dark green sedan. How could he come up with a plan though if he didn't know where the man lived? Or, what if it was a crazy lady? I mean after all, nobody really got a look at the driver. Everyone just assumed the driver was a guy.

After pacing a few minutes, he went to check to see what Simon was typing about. But before he could make it all the way to Simon, the door opened behind him. He jumped up, as if out of his skin, and lost balance and fell making a 'whooaaaa' and an 'oomph' noise. He turned his head to see Dave and Fritzie in the doorway.

"And this... is the boy's room," Dave groaned, raising an eyebrow at Alvin. He knew that the only time he would scare Alvin on this caliber was if he was planning something that he wasn't meant to be doing. Dave put his hands on his hips. "Okay, what is it this time Alvin?"

Simon tried to come up with a quick witted excuse. "Alvin was just begging me to do his homework for him again Dave," Simon said in his brother's defense, not turning his face from the computer. Well, perhaps not in his brother's defense, and he silently gritted his teeth.

Alvin then remembered the conversation he had with Simon downstairs earlier that day, when he originally thought up to give Theodore his hat back. Simon offered to do his homework for the vacation and the first week back at school.

Dave groaned again. "Alvin, I thought we already had this tal-"

"No, Dave!" Alvin cut Dave off. "He offered to do it this time! I'm serious! He offered me to do it for me downstairs before you came home!"

"Is this true, Simon?" Dave asked with a skeptical look on his face. Simon gave Alvin a shocked look back. He totally forgotten about that.

"Well, not in so many words Dave." Simon said, stuck at what to come back with.

"I asked, is it true?" Dave repeated sternly. Simon put his finger to his bottom lip.

"Yes, actually, I did." Simon said, he was at a loss for words, and he shot Alvin a look.

Dave rolled his eyes. This was one of those times where he really didn't understand his children. "Whatever, I'll leave you two to sort this out..."

Fritzie looked in concern though the doorway before both Dave and Fritzie left to go downstairs.

When he was positive that Dave was out of the room and closed the door behind him, Alvin returned the look back at Simon.

"Hey, it was either that, or Dave would have found out something that we wouldn't _want_ him to find out. I'm just surprised that he wasn't completely skeptical about the homework thing. I mean, it's Saturday, we have the whole week off from school, and you're working on the project now. Remember, if we didn't have off next week, Fritzie wouldn't be here right now."

"Alvin," Simon said, with a warm glint in his eyes, "how often, even on holidays, am I up here studying? I don't think that Dave would find that hard to believe. Besides, we were given quite a bit of work so now we won't be too far behind from finishing it all by thi-"

Simon interrupted himself when he got a small beeping noise from the computer. The window for the database began to flash. The young chipmunk grinned when he pulled the window back up.

"Gotcha." He said with a grin, but then minimized the window again when he heard Dave come back up the stairs.

* * *

Fritzie looked in concern though the doorway before both Dave and Fritzie left to go downstairs. She looked up at Dave.

"He actually did offer him that. Alvin did a few nice favors for Theodore and Simon was real grateful for it. They didn't say it near me, but I have exceptional hearing, so I heard that bit of their conversation."

Dave gave Fritzie an incredulous look as they walked into the living room. "Did he really? They must have been large favors, because Simon hates doing other people's homework."

"Actually, no. It was only random acts of kindness. It was enough to make Simon ecstatic." Fritzie said, curling up into a ball cozily on the armchair and transforming to normal. She glanced over at Theodore, who was fast asleep. Inside her heart, she wanted to talk to him. She wanted to get to know the one brother that she was looking forward to the most, although she would never admit that to them, but she knew that it would have to wait... at least until the next morning.

"Anyways, I'm going to go get some sleep. Thank you so much for your hospitality, Dave." Fritzie murmured wearily, stretching herself one more time before curling back up into a ball again.

"Oh, it's my pleasure Fritzie. I hope the rest of your stay isn't quite... this eventful. Good night." Dave said, stroking Fritzie's fur. Fritzie murmured a little bit, but then began drifting into a light sleep.

Deep down, Dave was worried about who could have possibly won this little competition. As the manager and father of three celebrities, there was always the risk of the winner being a fanatic. There was no end to his relief that she wasn't one of those said fanatics, along with what happened earlier today.

"Good night, Theodore." Dave walked over to Theodore and gave him a peck on the forehead. Theodore just swatted Dave away unconsciously so that he could sleep, as he was used to doing to his brothers. Dave smiled, then walked up the stairs to go to sleep finally. He reached the top of the stairs, and approached the boy's bedroom, but didn't open the door. Instead, he called through the door.

"I don't want you boys to stay up too late, okay?"

"Okay, Dave, night!" Alvin and Simon called out in chorus, as they went back to what they were doing with the search.

Simon grinned and pulled the database back up. He moved aside so that Alvin could see the results as well. Alvin's jaw dropped.

"Jackpot." Alvin muttered, not expecting what he saw. He rubbed his eyes. Simon's jaw dropped as well.

The results led to a house located only two blocks away from their very own.

* * *

**:P ---That's all I have to say.**


	16. Chapter 15: A Shocking Discovery

**Thanks for the usual reviews Dice and Elizabeth. In answer to the question, no. The chipettes live three blocks away, if I wrote it down right. Anyways, here is the extremely short chapter. I thought about merging this with the next chapter, but it doesn't seem to flow right, so I will keep this one seperate.**

**Alright, so thats two people who want me to do a sequel. I'm still thinking about it. In the meantime, I really need to do those drawings. Once I get a suitable enough audience,I will begin writing it, because I know people will be waiting in anticipation. The only thing that I will cut loose about the next story though, is that is _much_ darker than this story. It will have bits of the same comical mischief and sarcasm, but there will be a more heart wrenching aspect to it than this one did. That's all I dare say.**

**Anyways, more authors notes on the next chapter. Enjoy this one though, despite it's shortness. :P**

-Narf

**-----------------Chapter 15: A Shocking Discovery------------------**

"Hold on a moment, Simon. I have to completely rethink this one. I didn't realize that the culprit lived _that_ close!" Alvin said, snickering evilly. Now he was really going to let this guy have it! It was quite perfect that they could enact their revenge _that night_, before Dave can even notify the police about it. Of course, it angered him tremendously that one of their own neighbors was the culprit. What the hell were they thinking? He began to take his shoes off and take off his sweater so that he could get a little more comfortable thinking of a suitable revenge.

Simon just gaped into the computer screen. He turned around and fetched a look at Alvin, before looking back into the screen.

"There's no way they might of thought that Theodore was you Alvin, is there?" Simon asked puzzlingly. He just had to ask, realizing how close the culprit in fact, lived to them.

**WHAM!**

Alvin smashed Simon one in the back of the head with one of his shoes in his hand. Simon clutched the back of his head.

"That was _not_ cool!" Alvin snarled quietly to Simon, before putting his shoe down and softening up dramatically. "That comment was totally uncalled for," he said softly, sounding more upset than angry that time.

"Ow!" Simon squeaked out quietly, gritting his teeth and rubbing the back of his head. If there was only one thing that Alvin was credited for, his arm. And that hurt almost blindingly. Simon narrowed his eyes and glared at Alvin, who was now curled up into a ball on his bed.

"I'm sorry, Alvin but you must admit. The pranks you play on some of our neighbors could tick someone off. It doesn't mean that you deserved to be in Theodore's place... no one does. But isn't it possible that you might have pushed someone a little too far?"

Alvin looked at Simon, his eyes watery. "Yeah, but you know just as much as I do that I don't prank anyone that lives off the block, except perhaps the Chipettes, and you know that! That comment was completely uncalled for! I mean, it might have been a little bit of a laugh if Theodore wasn't actually _involved_ with that kind of scenario."

Alvin hugged his knees. "And I would never make a comment like that to anyone, unless I absolutely hate that person."

Simon hung his head shamefully. Alvin was right. Considering the situation, his comment was in fact, completely uncalled for. "I'm really sorry, you're right."

Alvin perked up slightly, rubbing the tears out of his eyes. "I'll let this one go, only because we really need to be level headed for what's going down tonight. That still was real uncalled for, and you're supposed to be the mature and responsible one of the group."

Simon looked downcast at the floor. This was going to take a little time to get used to. Did this mean that Simon wasn't going to get revenge for his baby brother? **Of course not!**

He pushed himself away from the computer and sat down on Alvin's bed. To his surprise, he wasn't kicked off viciously or anything. "Alright, so I did my part of the research, now what's your plan?"

"Well," Alvin said, easing himself up to a more relaxed sitting position and rubbing away whatever tears he had left in his eyes, "we decided on sabotage right?"

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. What do you have in mind?" Simon asked, not trying to get closer to his brother. He became too used to getting lashed out repeatedly by his brother, and he subconsciously rubbed his head again.

"I'm thinking of sabotaging the dude's car, and doing a little bit of 'exterior remodeling,'" Alvin started, making quotation marks with his fingers. "However, I didn't do too much planning on it, that's just the loose outline. I know just as much as you do, especially after that little comment before, that you want to let out some aggression. So for once, I think I'm going to let you have a fair say into our plan."

Simon blinked dumbly, but before he could say anything, Alvin continued what he was saying.

"What I'm asking, is if we can try to compromise on something ourselves. If we can do that, instead of having Theodore trimming things out like he usually does which we can't do anyways, we could come up with something..."

Simon raised both of his eyebrows. "Something what?"

Alvin rolled his eyes, pretending to have them roll to the back of his head. He then drew a straight line in the air and breathlessly said, "...flawless." The tone had an orgasmic sounding touch to it.

Simon giggled a little bit to himself. He liked where this idea was going.

* * *

**If Chapter 16 isn't available when you read this, it should be available momentarily. :P**


	17. Chapter 16: The Grains of Sabotage

**As promised, here is Chapter 16. If you haven't seen Chapter 15 (or as this site does it, ch 16) be sure to read it, because although it's short, you missed some stuff. :o**

**------------------Chapter 16: The Grains of Sabotage----------------**

"Okay, so I have a few things that I would like to experiment with in this sabotage. Firstly, I know that Dave bought some potatoes recently." Simon said puzzlingly, scratching his chin. "I read online that if you shove something into someone's exhaust, you could choke out the engine almost immediately before it starts. It would take ages for the guy to realize why his car wouldn't start. However, I have a backup plan if that doesn't work."

"Oh, what might that be then?" Alvin asked, intrigued with Simon's idea.

"Well, I've also heard about putting sugar in someone's gas tank could also cause some problems, and I would love to see what the results might be." Simon's mind was running in overdrive. It was rare for Alvin to just let him have a say in his schemes.

Alvin scratched his chin, then grinned. "I was thinking about stealing the guy's battery, but I totally like your idea better. Oh! Let's super glue him to the seat as well! When Dave finally does call the cops, why not have him set in a picture frame?" Alvin said happily, then began to wonder what if the guy had family members. The problem with Alvin's schemes most of the time, was that he would inevitably prank the wrong person. He was not about to let that happen again.

"Wait, scratch that Simon. Super gluing him to the seat sounds like a great idea, but what if he has other family members?"

Simon got up and went over to the computer again. "Hold on a second, let me check his social security records." He said, calling up his database and punching in the suspect's identity, Robert Cross Jr, along with his address.

"Oh, so it was a guy, okay, now I don't feel uncomfortable assuming that it was a he the whole time." Alvin said with a sigh.

"It surprises me a little that you are showing so much concern though." Simon said, tilting his head slightly confused.

"It's what Theodore would want, wouldn't it?" Alvin said with a grin. Simon nodded in agreeance. Theodore would kill them if they framed the wrong person. "So anyways, if he has other family members, I will call off the sabotage-"

"Nope, he lives alone." Simon said, interrupting Alvin. Alvin took a look at the screen with his own eyes, and resumed an evil grin. Now there was nothing to stop him, unless if he or Simon woke Theodore or Dave up by accident.

Simon grinned, almost violently, at the result. "You know, we could steal his battery! When he gets a new one, he'll find all of these other problems. Or, we could also drain his radiator fluid! And, and remember the time that you put detergent into Dave's windshield wiper fluid?" Simon said excitedly. He didn't realize how fun this was, but perhaps he was getting a little carried away.

Alvin chuckled a little bit. "Ah, yeah, good times... good times." Alvin said, grinning about the detergent incident. He turned the whole yard into a bubble bath. Maybe he could do that again some other time.

Alvin then looked dumbly at Simon. "About all that stuff though... nah. If we stole his battery, he could call a tow and we could not only miss our chance, but they won't catch the suspect that easily either, not to mention how much noise we would make. I want this to be like all of my other sabotages. Quietly, and in stealth."

Alvin thought for a second, then continued. "But if we were to do that, he would be glued to the seat, and that would actually be kind of funny seeing him being towed and glued to the seat. But nah, let's just see how the car runs with just the sugar, potato, and super-glued seat. He will probably call the cops about somebody sabotaging his car, and Dave will call the cops tomorrow morning about what happened to us, and hey! Presto, they match!" Alvin explained, jokingly dramatic in the process. He was quite satisfied with himself. He never concocted a plan that would run so smoothly as thus far, but it felt weird filtering out Simon's overdoing ideas instead of the contrary. Alvin paused again before continuing one last time.

"I'm just relieved that he lives alone. It makes me feel a little better that we wouldn't be harming anyone innocent, unlike that _creep_."

"You're absolutely right, Alvin... wow that has a weird roll to it." Simon said, rubbing his tongue with his finger. "I can't believe that someone could just do that to somebody else, let alone Theodore. He's never done anything to hurt anyone intentionally, and those times when he did hurt someone unintentionally, they would be washed up and scrubbed with apologies."

Simon pulled up a blank document on the computer. On there, he began typing out a list of things to grab from downstairs.

"Okay, so we need a potato, a five pound bag of sugar, and super glue. Anything else you need? You're the expert at these kinds of things."

Naturally, Alvin would be flattered by such comments, but this wasn't the time for it, and instead began thinking about 'exterior remodeling.' He wanted to give him the biggest bang for his buck, but also wanted to keep it subtle. After a good moment, he came up with a second list of items.

"Okay, I figured it out. I am going to need a screwdriver, preferably the flathead and phillips combo screwdriver all in one thing. Um, lets see, I also need a banana, one of our old newspapers that Dave might have left downstairs... preferably the Sunday paper last week. I will also need some orange construction paper, which we have up here... a plastic grocery bag, an old newspaper cover plastic bag thing, and for the final touch... our leftovers."

Alvin grinned furiously about the leftovers bit. He knew that if even Theodore wouldn't eat it, _nobody_ would. And their refrigerator was overdue for a cleaning out.

"And when I say leftovers, I mean _all_ of them." Alvin said proudly. This was going to be so good, it was a total shame that he couldn't witness the events going on... or could he? Nah, despite how nicely it should result, he didn't want to be caught looming at the scene of his masterful work.

Simon had no idea what Alvin meant by all of that, especially their leftovers? He simply nodded, and typed it all out in a list. "Right... leftovers? What for? What _do_ you have planned?" All of the items were easy to get, but he didn't understand the importance of the leftovers... or the construction paper for that matter. He shrugged, since Alvin would explain it all eventually.

Alvin let out the most evil grin he gave that night. He narrowed his eyes, and simply said, **"The lure."** What went from just a sabotage, now turned into more of a masterful trap.

Alvin then softened his expression. "When you get all of the ingredients, I'll explain it to you in detail. But please, cover all of the leftovers into something that wont let the smell leak out? I don't want to make my room reek, if not because it will smell rancid, because Dave will suspect something."

Simon rolled his eyes as he got up. "Alvin, I'm not stupid," he said with a sigh, walking over to the door. When he put his hand on the doorknob, he paused and turned around. "Do you think Dave's asleep yet?"

"I don't know. Check first." Alvin said, lying on his back and putting his hands behind his head. He began wondering if he should make a diagram to help explain his idea.

Simon rolled his eyes and opened the door, careful not to make a noise. The hall lights were out, which was a good sign, and he could hear Dave snoring lightly in the room at the end of the hall. He crept downstairs, grabbing a plastic bag to keep their 'goodies' in. He decided against going to go get the screwdriver and glue until they were on their way out. It would be the least invasive.

He began to quickly and quietly stash the food in the bag, wrinkling his nose at the sight and smell of it all. After he got it all, he put the dirty dishes in the sink, making absolutely sure not to make a sound. He reached into the pantry where they kept the cleaning supplies and other assorted kitchen stuff. Inside there, he grabbed a tupperware container, and sealed it shut. Satisfied that there wasn't a smell, he grabbed the newspaper off of the counter top, which just by fluke, happened to be last Sunday's paper. He grabbed the 'weekend' section and the classifieds.

He then grabbed the five pound bag of sugar, two potatoes out of the potato bin, and a nice ripe banana. He figured that Alvin just wanted the banana as a snack, but there could be a use for it.

Satisfied that he got everything he needed, he crept back up the stairs quietly and went into their bedroom again.

Fritzie opened an eye and looked at Simon as he was creeping up the stairs. Careful not to change her breathing pattern, she watched Simon creep up with a bunch of things in his arms. Fritzie was a very light sleeper for the most part, and despite her head injuries, tonight wasn't quite an exception, probably because she wasn't the most comfortable she could be. She wanted to be around someone else.

'They already have the groundwork for this plan in progress,' she thought to herself sleepily, noticing how bright everything was considering the time of night. She raised an eyebrow. 'And apparently, color doesn't affect my night vision capabilities. That's kind of nice.'

She then worked her way back to sleep.

As Simon came back into the room, Alvin was eying the supplies. "Okay, you have everything I asked for?" Alvin asked quietly, as Simon put the supplies down on Alvin's bed.

"All but the screwdriver and the glue. I thought it would be easier to grab them on the way out." Simon suggested. Alvin nodded and thumb upped the idea.

Alvin picked up the newspaper, along with the plastic sheath it came with. He read the date on the 'weekend' section. May 18th, last Sunday. He then noted that it was only the weekend and classified sections, which would probably piss the guy off no end, and also thumbed that up as well.

"Okay, I decided that it would probably be easier to explain this if I drew it out for you as well, so I'm going to need one of your large blueprint papers. Can you go get a sheet for me? I would go get them myself, but you hide them from me, so I can't." Alvin said, going to grab a sheet of orange construction paper.

Simon looked slightly apprehensive what Alvin asked him for one of his prized blueprint papers. There was a reason why he hid them from Alvin, after all. After staring for a moment though, he gave in. "Alright," he sighed. It was for a good cause after all. "I'll be back in a moment."

Once more, Simon snuck out of their room, and made his way to the basement 'laboratory', which was past the living room and down the hall.

As he made his way down the stairs, he winced when he heard a creaky noise and froze. He completely forgotten about the creaky step, and listened silently for anyone to come.

Fritzie winced when she heard the creaky step. She didn't want to fully wake up, but if Simon was going to make multiple trips like this, she decided to wake up. Again, she was careful not to open her eyes too wide. Any reflection of light would make it obvious that she was awake, and she kept her breathing the same. Instead though, she closed her eyes and waited to hear for Simon to pass by again.

When no one came out after a few moments, Simon let out the breath that he was holding and continued down, and grabbed one of the large blank blueprints that he had. Satisfied, he made his way back up, careful to skip the creaky step, and silently made his way back up towards their room.

Fritzie, noting Simon passing, silently transforming back to anthropic, and creeping along silently behind Simon as he walked up the stairs. Simon entered the room, with the sheet dangling in front of his legs. Fritzie then seized opportunity and briskly ducked underneath a bed with a green colored blanket (although she couldn't identify the color) before anyone could notice she was there.

When Simon entered the room, Alvin took a second to stop staring at the ceiling to see Simon there with the sheet.

"Don't mess u-"

"The door!" Alvin whispered sharply, cutting Simon off before he could really say anything and Simon stared dumbly at the door. After a second, he closed it quietly and awaited Dave to come storming in. When that didn't happen, Alvin and Simon both let their breath go.

"Okay," Simon said, shaking a little bit before continuing, "as I was going to say, don't mess this sheet up. This is the only sheet I'm letting you have, okay Alvin?"

Alvin pondered for a second. Since the newspaper office was down the road, and part of his prank involved a newspaper, he began to wonder how far the car would go, because what would happen if the potato failed, where would the guy's car stall?

"First, a question before I go on, how um, far, do you suppose the guy will drive? Will the car just stall in his driveway? Or will he be able to get anywhere?" Alvin asked curiously. It might be ridiculously funny if the guy was to just stall in front of their house, although, that would mean that they would get caught.

Simon pushed his glasses up to his nose. "It takes a little while before the sugar can corrupt the engine. With the potato though, he'll be able to start his engine, but since the exhaust fumes have nowhere to go, it should cut out after a few seconds," he said, then pausing, "or so I've heard."

"Heh, okay. Anyways," he said, taking the blueprint paper and getting up to grab a marker. After he grabbed the marker, he sat down on the floor and began to draw a crude outline of a house, a few windows, and a car. He took a bite out of the banana that he asked Simon to get, and began pointing out his plan intermittently between bites.

"Alright, we established the car bit of it. While you take care of the car, I will be taking care of 'exterior remodeling.' Boy, that has a nice ring to it." Alvin said with a grin. Simon stood over Alvin to get a decent view of his scenario.

"Alright, now what's your big plan to lure him outside? I'm dying to know what you have in mind with the construction paper and the leftovers!" Simon said, rubbing his hands together.

Fritzie smiled to herself underneath Theodore's bed. She watched through a crack in the blanket and awaited the plan to be unraveled. She could guess pieces of the car sabotage from what she heard just before, but she didn't understand, couldn't the guy escape?

"Well, it's all fairly simple really." Alvin said, pointing out various places on the diagram. He circled the front door, the doorstep, the living room window, and the lawn. "We need to find an open window, preferably the living room window. If the living room window isn't open, any old window will do." Alvin picked up the tub of leftovers before continuing. "We will leave ithis/i in a place by, or even on, the windowsill. The bag will be easily visible, but there will be some kind of barrier, like a screen window, or it will be out of reach, whatever the case. But regardless, I expect him to keep the window open. You know how lots of people open their windows at night around this time of year? The cool breezes at night feel nice. Cools the house off."

Simon laughed, but then began scratching his chin in confusion.

"Anyways," Alvin continued, "he will wake up and notice the reeking smell. He will try to get outside to find out what the smell is. This is where the screwdriver comes in." Alvin said, pointing at the front door. Simon's eye twitched. "When he opens the door, the door will come flying off its hinges."

"Kind of like in the Three Stooges?" Simon asked curiously. He may be intelligent, but after all, he was still a kid. Even he enjoyed slapstick comedy from time to time. Alvin nodded and grinned.

"If it's not the front door, because the door might be hinged on the inside, then it will be the screen door. Either one will give him a good scare."

Simon nodded. It was pretty clever, and after scaring, it probably would lead to more agitation.

Alvin pointed at the crudely drawn doorstep and held up the now (nearly) finished banana. "The banana peel," Alvin said, taking the last bite, leaving only the little seed pith, "will just be a running gag. If he falls on it, he falls on it. If he doesn't, well, then he will know that somebody also had a practical sense of humor, although either outcome will make him even more angry."

"Okay, so we will succeed in making him enraged, so what does the newspaper and the car have to do with this?" Simon asked curiously.

"I was getting to that." Alvin said bluntly, holding up the orange construction paper. "He will then probably notice the old newspaper laid haphazardly on the front lawn. Inside the neatly rolled up newspaper, he will notice what we left for him, and inside he will notice this bright orange piece of construction paper. This is where your computer comes into this." Alvin said, pointing at the computer. Simon sighed dejectedly about the computer bit.

"And what does the computer have to do with this?" Simon whined, Alvin threw his hand in his face.

"You're acting as if I'm going to destroy it or something. No, Simon. Think! Why would I need your computer and this construction paper?"

"I couldn't possibly imagine," Simon said, rolling his eyes.

"I need you to come up with a professionally written message about his newspaper subscription being canceled. I chose orange construction paper because you can easily notice it." Alvin said dryly. Simon dropped his head.

"Okay, I didn't see that one coming. Makes sense." Simon said dully.

"Now, the message will have something along the lines of 'We are canceling your subscription due to lack of payments, and as a final warning, we are giving you extra clippings of last weeks paper. If you would like to renew your subscription or have any comments, please come down to our office on the main road.' or something along those lines."

"Okay," Simon said with a nod.

"After that, he will presumably get into his car and try to drive off to sort this out. And thats the lure into the car. After he gets into the car, he will find out his car isn't working or he will stall sometime during driving, he will find out that he is super-glued to the seat, and then he will be no match for the cops. He will be so angry, that he will just deepen the hole he dug."

Simon smirked brightly. "That's probably the best scheme you ever worked out, although, it is still dependent on too many variables. What if he has no open windows in his house, or what if he doesn't have a newspaper subscription?"

Alvin got up and stood on his bed proudly. "That, why you're here, to help me work out some of these said 'variables.'"

Fritzie, after hearing this whole plan unfold, began to feel real excited. Of course, she wanted to know her role in the whole thing, and of course, it was overlooked. She couldn't contain herself anymore, and popped out from under Theodore's bed, much to everyone else's surprise.

"And what do I do?" Fritzie asked puzzlingly, struggling on the last bit of getting out from under Theodore's bed. Alvin shot up and almost hit his head on the ceiling, before landing lightly on his bed and beginning to shake. He looked behind him and saw Fritzie there.

Simon nearly jumped out of his skin himself. His eyes widened, the sound of another voice completely overtook him by surprise, and it was in fear that Dave might have just caught them, if Dave's voice all of a sudden sounded very feminine.

"Fritzie!" Simon chastised her. Alvin struggled to get over his shaking fit.

"Argh!" Alvin said quietly, but annoyed. "Don't **do that** to me!"

Fritzie lightly kicked her feet. "Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you, but I couldn't help it, this sounds so... fun!" Fritzie dropped the guilty look and a more eager look instead flashed over her face. "I always wanted to take part in one of those world-famous Alvin schemes!"

"World-famous?" Alvin said, putting his index finger to his lip in thought. Simon shook his head.

"That's not the point. The point is, Dave would kill us if we dragged you into this, Fritzie. As it is, if he finds out about this, which its more than likely he will, we'll be grounded for weeks!" Simon said quietly, but sternly.

Fritzie looked at Simon with a grin. "Correction, you guys aren't dragging me into this, I choose to with my own free will. And secondly, I already told you in the car, I'm the only one who can talk imyself/i out of this. Even if I don't get a minor role in this, at least allow me to use my exceptionally keen senses to guide you and/or keep you out of imminent danger. I can hear a pin drop in an auditorium full of screaming kids, and I can see exceptionally well at night."

Simon turned to Alvin, wanting his advice on the matter. He almost knew that Alvin would say yes about it, but he wanted to double check. "I suppose that since I'm actually helping this time, a lookout would be good, right?" Since Alvin was the leader of these schemes, it was only natural to ask his brother permission after all.

Alvin got down of the bed. Simon already shook her hand in the car, and he didn't quite get his chance, so he approached Fritzie with a warmer looking grin. He held out his hand. "Welcome to the team," he said cheerfully, and Fritzie and Alvin shook on it. He decided silently to keep watch too, like he normally did, but he wasn't going to say anything to Fritzie about it.

Fritzie went over and picked up the tub of leftovers, and sniffed it through the container without opening it. She flinched, then placed the container back down and shivered. "It smells absolutely rancid, but it sure beats dog food."

"Haha, that's why they are called leftovers. They are what even Theodore won't eat." Simon said with a grin.

"What _is_ in dog food, anyways?" Alvin asked curiously.

Fritzie's eyes widened. "You don't want to know."

Simon shook his head and got in between them. "This still doesn't solve our variable problem, though."

"Oh, right." Alvin said, putting his hand to his chin. "Well, if he doesn't have a newspaper box out front, then he doesn't have a subscription. If it comes down to that, we'll just throw the newspaper away when we get home. As for the open window problem, well, then we will just have to improvise."

"We could put it in his car, then. He will sit down and he won't be able to get away from the smell." Simon said while thinking. Alvin shook his head no.

"There is that chance that the leftovers will just repel him from the car. I'll think of something on the spot if there isn't an open window." Alvin said, putting a fist in his hand.

Fritzie rubbed the back of her head. It was incredibly sore, and it was numbing her a little bit. She gave a slight pleading look to Simon. "Do you have the aspirin still? I don't have a headache or any dizzy spells anymore, but my head's still sore, and I want to take some as a precautionary measure.

Simon dug around in his pocket and found the bottle still there. He must have forgotten to put it back in the bathroom. He tossed the bottle without thinking and said, "Here, catch," followed by an "Oops, shouldn't have done th-"

Fritzie jumped up and caught the bottle gracefully with her mouth. She then took the bottle out of her mouth, looked at herself, then grinned. "Instinct, hehe." She took a tablet out, then realized that she had nothing to down it with. Not wanting to risk another venture outside, she went for the banana that Alvin just ate, and took the seed pith out. She cleverly tucked the tablet in and ate the pith. "Also, improvising. Don't want to risk waking anyone up."

"Good call." Simon said in relief. Fritzie wagged her tail a little bit.

Fritzie lied down on Theodore's bed and looked up at the ceiling though. She could tell that both Alvin and Simon were itching to enact their plan. She looked up at the ceiling. "Shouldn't we wait until a bit later to enact this revenge though? I mean, ten at night is a bit early for this."

Alvin looked at Simon. He was rearing and kicking to do it now, but then again, he was also the impatient type. He decided to ask Simon, because Simon new best when it came to cautious and careful planning. "Up to him, caution was never really my style."

"What do you mean 'was?' Caution still is never your style." Simon said with a smirk.

Alvin rolled his eyes. "Hey, I was somewhat cautious about this one, wasn't I? I mean, I actually took the time to think this one through and gave you some input."

"Good point." Simon said to himself. He never thought Alvin would best him with constructive reasoning more than twice in the same day, let alone multiple times in a short time span. "But yes, I agree with Fritzie on this. We're still working through the ideas, but for a project like this, it's better to find possible faults now instead of finding them out suddenly at the last minute, right Alvin?"

Alvin just grunted, and waited for Simon to get on with it.

"So yeah, after all we don't know when this guy goes to bed either, and it's far embarrassing getting caught red-handed." Simon added. He didn't want to risk getting caught, but all the same, he didn't want to fall asleep before acting on it either.

"Okay, I get the point, Simon." Alvin said with a sigh. He knew what Simon was trying to spit out, and although he really wanted to do it now, getting caught red-handed, by someone other than Dave of course, was definitely **not** his style, no matter what the situation was. "We'll fine tune this, and we will set out at three in the morning."

"Okay, that sounds like a safer time." Simon said agreeably.

"And in the meantime," Fritzie cut in, "I'm going to get some sleep in the between time. I'll sleep better if I'm actually in the room with the people talking instead of going back downstairs and hearing it from afar. It's nice and reassuring."

"Fair enough." Simon interjected, and began fine tuning the plan a little bit with Alvin.

And with that, Fritzie began to drift into a heavier sleep than she could expect.

* * *

**What happens next? Tune in tomorrow afternoon for the next chapter. :P And another friendly reminder, I love feedback. :3**


	18. Chapter 17: Enacting the Plan

**Okay, I released three chapters yesterday, and I only got four reviews in total, and the last two chapters only got four and six views respectively. I'm only releasing one chapter today. It's not so much because of my not quite subtle dissapointment, it's partly because well, you guys need to catch up. Yes, I'm a bit irked about it, because everyone is like "Only one chapter a day? Plzzz update more!" and when I do I barely get any hits. There's nothing that I can do about it, except think I'm taking things too fast. So I'm going to slow down.**

**(Thank you Dice, by the way, for being three of those four reviews.)**

**This is the first chapter in a while with a song. If you're a slow reader, read the part with the song without the music first, then reread it with music. The link is on my profile.**

**Enjoy Chapter 17.**

**--------------------Chapter 17: Enacting the Plan-------------------**

Simon woke up sharply after he hit his head lightly on the bedpost. Alvin was busy studying the completed diagram for one last time, before taking a glance at the clock.

2:45 AM.

Simon shook his head. "Okay, guys. It's a quarter 'til three, we still need to get the screwdriver and glue, and if we wait around any longer I'm afraid I will fall asleep for real instead of nodding off like I just did."

Alvin rubbed his eyes lightly and nodded. "Yeah, let's get sleeping beauty up." He jumped off his bed silently, and proceeded to rub Fritzie's back lightly to wake her up.

Fritzie moaned a little bit, then batted Alvin's hand away lightly. "Come on Tal, five more minutes, pleeease?"

Alvin looked dumbly at Fritzie. "Wrong place," he said dryly, rubbing her back again.

Fritzie grabbed the material of the blanket she was sleeping on. It didn't look like anything familiar at all. She rolled onto her back and looked around the room, noticing how everything was in color. 'How did that happen?' she thought to herself. She looked over at Alvin stupidly.

"Well, at least you slept well," Alvin grumbled. Fritzie blinked twice, then everything suddenly just blast back to her. She frantically looked around the room from side to side, then let out a sigh.

"Hehe, for a moment there I forgot where I was and what happened today. So used to waking up out of a deep sleep in Tal's room." Fritzie said with a grin. "Ready to go?" she said, rolling over lightly and stretching out her paws. While she was sleeping, she must have morphed back to normal, so after a good solid stretching, she morphed anthropic.

Simon and Alvin both looked at each other then looked at Fritzie.

"Whoa, how did you do that?" Alvin asked curiously. Simon slapped his own forehead.

Fritzie giggled. "I can't explain it. It's very useful though." She said, recalling all of the times it helped to her benefit, not including today.

"I can believe that." Simon said, thinking about the events earlier. That explained _how_ Theodore and Fritzie both ended up getting the injuries they received.

"Okay, so now that we are all alert again, how well do you guys think the plan will work?" Fritzie asked curiously.

"Foolproof." Alvin said with a satisfied grin.

"Which means that even Alvin can't mess up," Simon teased his brother good naturedly as he got off his bed and walked over to their little 'bag of tricks.'

"What happens though if the guy's car window is closed though? Do you suppose that we are just going to... break into the car?" Fritzie asked, looking at Simon for an answer. If anyone would have come up with an answer to that problem, it probably would have been him. Simon pulled a coat hanger out of his shirt.

"Ahh yes, with one of these, and a little bit of patience, we should be able to trigger the car's locking mechanism," he said, slightly worried. He knew he was in a bit of trouble if the car had an alarm, but this plan _was_ going to run smoothly, for Theodore's sake.

Alvin laughed a little bit. Even Simon was acting slightly on impulse now, which meant that this was not only going to be marvelous, but fun as well. Seeing Simon act on instinct and impulse was a rarity in itself, although he dared not glorify it.

Fritzie shrugged. "Okay guys, if you say so," she said as she jumped off the bed silently. She began to channel her excellent hearing to make sure that the coast was clear. Judging by the sleeping patterns of both Dave and Theodore, both were asleep fairly soundly. Fritzie lifted one of her ears to get a better judgment on the sounds.

"I hear Dave and Theodore snoring right now..." she paused, making a clear judgment on each of their status. "Both of them are soundly sleeping, although Dave sounds deeper asleep than Theodore. I still say we are in the clear though." Fritzie said with a grin emerging on her face. "Lets own that fool."

Fritzie gave a thumbs up before creeping over to the bedroom door. Alvin fished the lights off, before grabbing the now finished newspaper, which has been checked for any traces of evidence that it was _theirs_ and stuffed with the professionally printed flier, the banana peel, and the 'tub of breakfast' as he and Simon generously nicknamed it. He was responsible for the 'exterior remodeling,' since much of the idea was his, while Simon was responsible for the 'pimp my ride' portion if it as Alvin lovingly nicknamed it. Simon enjoyed the little joke, and adopted the name without any argument, much to Alvin's surprise.

Simon grabbed his spare backpack, and put the potatoes and sugar in the pack. Alvin, following Simon's example, fetched his spare backpack to put his stuff in.

Before Alvin headed out though, he hid the diagram neatly underneath his red checkerboard comforter. He didn't understand why, if Dave saw their beds empty it would mean living hell anyways, but it was just impulse.

After Simon and Alvin were done collecting their things, they met Fritzie at the front door, who motioned them quietly to go outside. No changes in sleeping rhythms so far.

When they were outside and Simon quietly closed the door behind him, Fritzie fished out her GPS tracker, now that she had her jeans on again. She pulled it out and asked Simon to program the guy's address into the GPS.

"The GPS only has a twenty foot margin of error, which makes it top of the line for today's standards. So if we program it in, we will know exactly where to go." Fritzie said with a grin. After Simon inputted the address in, he motioned for Fritzie and Alvin to stay where they were. He approached the garage door. Alvin flinched, and Fritzie stood _absolutely still_ and held her breath when he did this. She channeled her hearing full force, and praying that neither would wake up due to impeding stupidity. Fritzie looked at Alvin fearfully.

"Should he have gone through the house instead?"

Simon opened the garage door as quietly as he could, it made some noise, but the fact that it opened fairly quietly made him satisfied. Alvin gulped.

"Too late to answer that question." Alvin said quietly as Simon ducked into the garage. Fritzie clenched her fists and listened desperately in hope that nobody would wake up.

Simon rushed in and quietly grabbed the screwdriver Alvin requested, and a tube of super glue in a few seconds before rushing back under before quietly closing the garage door.

Fritzie continued to hold her breath. Theodore stirred slightly, but Dave didn't even change tones at all. When Theodore's breathing went almost back to deep sleep again, Fritzie let go the air in her lungs.

Alvin shook Simon. "Are you nuts?" Alvin whispered sharply. Simon looked at Alvin confused.

"What do you mean?" Simon whispered curiously. Alvin began waving his arms.

"You should have gone through the house and went into the garage through the living room!" Alvin whispered back in panic.

"But Theodore could have woken up if we did that." Simon whispered back sternly. Fritzie took her turn to shake Simon like he was an idiot.

"Theodore almost woke up just now!" Fritzie whispered pleadingly. "You _should_ have gone through the house! What were you thinking?"

Simon sighed. "Sorry, wasn't thinking."

Fritzie lifted an ear up, Theodore was sleeping more soundly now again, which means that the sound didn't wake him up, but it almost lured him awake. "We are _real_ lucky that he didn't wake up just now."

* * *

KEY SONG: WOLFMOTHER- "JOKER AND THE THIEF"

Alvinshuddered a little bit. He knew damn straight that if Theodore woke up, Dave would be awake shortly afterwards, regardless of the time of night. "Just pray he stays asleep until we are at least in bed and asleep."

Simon shut his eyes and massaged his temples. He realized the caliber of problems of what could have happened if Theodore woke up from his stupidity. He shrugged it off though, because the longer they worried about it, the less time they had to complete their mission.

They all fished one last glance at each other, before dashing out towards the street. Fritzie enhanced the tuning of her sight, sense of smell, and her hearing as they reached the curb. Fritzie pulled out her GPS, and eagerly handed it to Simon. She didn't want to be distracted by it.

Simon took the GPS and studied the map as they began walking slowly down the block in the opposite direction of the main road. They crossed the street silently as Simon studied where the directions led them.

Fritzie began humming to herself quietly as she examined her surroundings, taking note to every subtle movement and every possible stare. Everyone's lights were off, and the streetlights were rather dim, which meant that stealth would be possible, if the conditions remained right.

_I said the joker is a wanted man,  
__He makes his way all across the land,  
__See him sifting, though the sand-  
__So I'll tell you all a story about-  
__The joker and the thief in the night!_

Fritzie cautiously edged around the neighborhood, Alvin following along silently, followed by Simon who was studying the GPS thoroughly. He began to make out individual houses on the map, which meant that the GPS was not only current, but it had placements for houses on it. Pretty tool.

"When we reach the end of our block, we need to make a left, a left onto the next block, and then a right on the first block we come across. Our target will be the seventh house on the left," Simon explained quietly, examining the GPS.

_He's always laughing in the midst of power,  
__Are we living in the final hour?  
__There is always sweet in sour,  
__So are we... not- going home?_

Fritzie looked dumbly at Simon. As intelligent as she was, the GPS still confused her, although less now that she could see in color. "How did you know that?" Fritzie asked shyly. Fritzie panned a look at her surroundings to make sure that nobody was coming. She took the moment then to soak up on how nice of a night it was, much more relieving than Florida weather.

_Can you see the joker flying over,  
__As she's standing in a field of clover?  
__Watching out, everyday...  
I__wonder what would happen if he took her away_

"Oh, its rather like reading a map. A very, detailed, map." Simon interjected. Fritzie nodded and they continued silently. rounding the corner at the end of the block and crossing the street.

Fritzie observed for some time, taking note to which houses had lights on at that point and which didn't. She noticed one at the corner they were due to turn on, and quietly led the boys and herself to blend in with the hedges out front.

After turning the corner, they hastened and crossed the street to the left side. Fritzie took note that everyone's lights were off, which was nice, up to the leading road where they would set up a rendezvous point.

Then, all of the hairs stood up on Fritzie's back. She began to hear a noise at a distance, it sounded like it was on the next block, their block. Without any further hesitation, she broke their intermittent silence.

"Someone's coming!" Fritzie whispered sharply, taking note to the hedges right next to her and beginning to look at them in fear. Quick, into the bushes!" she said, instinctively leaping into the thick hedges.

_What you see, well you might not know,  
__And you get the feeling coming after the glow,  
__The vagabond, is moving slow...  
__So I'll tell you all the story about-  
__The joker and the thief in the night!_

Alvin didn't hesitate for longer than a second before jumping into the hedges. However, Simon hesitated for a second. Had they been missed already? However, one urgent glance from Fritzie was enough to make him leap into the bushes, almost right on top of Alvin. They stared out of the hedges in anticipation, now that everyone was cleverly hidden in.

_All the people that you see in the night,  
__Hold their dreams up to the light,  
__The wilder beast is searching for sight...  
__We... are not- going home!_

Just a mere moment after Simon jumped into the hedges, a car rounded the corner at the end of the block and they watched in fear to see what car it could possibly be. All hoped that it wasn't Dave. Much to everyone's relief, it wasn't, but instead, it was a dark sedan. A very _familiar_ dark sedan.

It was the same car that was involved in yesterday's incident, or so it seemed. Fritzie noted the smell of alcohol and marijuana emanating from the car's open windows.

_Can you see the joker flying over,  
__As she's standing in a field of clover?  
__Watching out, everyday...  
__I wonder what would happen if he took her away?_

"Ick, what's that smell?" Alvin commented quietly as the car passed.

"Pot, weed, dope, marijuana." Fritzie replied, rattling off the names that she could come up with for it. "Anyways, that looks like the car in question, do you think it's heading home?"

"My god, we have a total ignorant slob on our hands don't we?" Simon groaned, referring to the guy that just drove past. "Anyways, I didn't catch the guy's license plate, but judging by the man's behavior, it probably is. Although, I kind of hope that it wasn't." Of all things, he truly wished that it wasn't; because if it was, it would mean that they would have to wait even longer.

Fritzie waited in the bushes until she was sure that the car pulled off far enough. With her keen hearing, she could sense that the car made a right turn not too far up the street, which matched the description that Simon gave to her as directions. She jumped out and brushed herself off. When she brushed her head off, she winced a little bit when she got to the back of her head. With her headache completely gone, along with the dizzy spells, it was a much more comforting feeling. However, it didn't mean that the pain was welcoming either.

Alvin shook his head, then shrugged his shoulders as he jumped out on Fritzie's lead. Simon reluctantly followed Alvin out, and he readjusted his glasses.

The trio made due time as they ran down the street to the corner where Fritzie called in her mind as a rendezvous point. The yard was abandoned, so Fritzie leapt in a break in the bushes and motioned Simon and Alvin to do the same. At this location though, Fritzie couldn't help but feel like she was being watched. The gaze felt familiar, but it didn't feel like anything that they encountered in the last twenty-four hours.

_(Solo at 3m 39s)_

She peered around the hedges and took note of the car still on in the driveway down the street. Judging by distance, it was six or seven houses down, which put Simon's calculations right on the money. She watched as the figure noisily made his way into the house after a moment and slam the door shut loudly. He _felt_ aggravated, even from a distance, which gave her a bad gut feeling.

"I know that this is going to sound a bit annoying, but we better wait until a few minutes after he falls asleep. I'm getting bad vibes, but he feels absolutely hammered though, so falling asleep should come very shortly." Fritzie whispered cautiously.

"Hammered?" Alvin asked. Simon shot his brother a 'you're stupid' look, but before he could say anything, Fritzie interrupted.

"Wasted, drunk beyond recognition." she whispered back.

Simon rolled his eyes, fighting back a sarcastic remark. Fritzie glared at him.

"Oh, what do we do in the meantime then?" Alvin asked shyly, asking for a motive of direction.

"You and Simon keep watch of the house down the street. I'm going to go patrolling." Fritzie commented, leaving her 'post' and began searching for the source of her 'feeling of being watched' was coming from.

_I said the joker is a wanted man,  
__He makes his way all across the land,  
__See him sifting, though the sand-  
__So I'll tell you all the story about the joker and the thief-  
__I said I'll tell you all the story about the joker and the thief-  
__I said I'll tell you all about joker and the thief in the night!_

Fritzie began frantically searching around everything in a half block radius, except for down the actual block they were on. Making herself careful not to be too obvious, she began panning every hiding spot- in bushes, under cars, anything that could conceal somebody.

Simon peered over the hedges and kept a careful eye on everything in front of them, dominantly the house in question though. "When the lights go out, we give him an extra five minutes, okay?"

"Mmhmm." Alvin mumbled, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. He was so ready to carry it out now, but he knew better than that.

Simon looked at the ground worriedly. It's bad enough that he just knew that Dave was going to find out about it somehow, but he really wanted to make sure that he wouldn't find out in the middle of the night. Alvin kicked his feet nervously too.

_(End song.)_

On the final note, the lights at the house in question, turned off.

* * *

The second the lights turned off, Alvin wanted to just jump out of the bushes right then and there, but as he began to spring out, he managed to stop himself in mid bound. He softly whined to himself.

"Aww, nuts." Alvin muttered to himself. He was beginning to get impatient. So what if Dave found out, he was actually beginning to suspect that Dave would actually be lenient about this one. After all, Dave couldn't exactly _blame_ them for doing this... could he?

"I'd be pretty safe to say that he gone to bed, and I want to jump out right now and finish it myself, but let's wait a few minutes, and for Fritzie to come back before we commence." Simon said as he poked his head above the hedges.

Fritzie began to get real frustrated. Naturally, she would have spotted anyone hiding by now, but she couldn't find _anything_ within sight. It was driving her insane. After the second panning, she finally gave up.

'Perhaps I'm just getting paranoid,' she thought to herself glumly as she made her way back to her post.

As she made her way back, Alvin folded his arms. "What was that all about?" he asked impatiently. Fritzie shook her head.

"Bit paranoid, that's all. Was an effective enough time killer, at least for me anyways. How long have the lights been out?" she asked as she peered over the hedges.

"About five minutes now." Simon replied, brushing himself lightly and readying up to carry out their task.

"Okay, let's proceed. I'll go on ahead and listen for any activity, and double check if it is in fact, the right target," Fritzie responded operatively, stepping out and darting on ahead.

Even with proceeding on ahead of the group, she still couldn't help but continue the 'being watched' feeling, and it became much stronger as they went further down the block. Nobody's lights were on, and Fritzie made a careful check to see if anyone was outside or staring out their darkened windows. Nope, none at all, not even the faintest shadow. Whoever _was_ spying on them was pretty damn clever at hiding.

Alvin and Simon tiptoed their way down the road, not quite sneaking up on Fritzie, but not quite far behind either. Simon looked at the yard in front of them, upon arrival, and looked dominantly at the car. Fritzie whipped out her cell phone and took a look at the picture she snapped.

"Right on the money." Fritzie commented to herself, closing up her phone quietly and staring right at the license plate. This was their man.

"Are we right to start?" Simon whispered to Fritzie eagerly.

Fritzie took notice of the house in front of her. It was as if Alvin did a scout mission, the house was perfectly set up. The driver's seat window was open, the living room window was open- hell, there was even an old rotted flower box in front of it! Perfect place to 'make breakfast.'

Fritzie squinted her eyes to make out details of the front door. Sure enough, the door had hinges on the _outside_, which only meant that the house was pretty shabbily put together. Assuming by how cheap the house looked, she could guess that this was a lone bachelor that lived here, college age.

Fritzie looked to the right and saw the newspaper box attached to the guy's mailbox. Inside it was this Sunday's paper. Alvin would have to figure out what to do with that.

Finally, she began to channel her ears to hear for the guy's activity, but before she could do that-

"Simon... I can hear the guy snoring from out here in the street," Alvin said as a matter of factly. "I can only guess its a 'clear to go.'"

"I suppose I'm so used to your elephantine snores that I can't hear anyone else's." Simon snarked in reply. Alvin rolled his eyes.

Fritzie snuck up and looked into the living room window to get a good look inside the house. He was not crashed out in the living room, but she did see two feet sticking out of a nearby room, on the floor, which probably meant that the slob passed out on the floor before making it to a bed or something. Nice touch.

Fritzie eagerly crept back to Alvin and Simon's location. "So clear, in fact, that you didn't even need to revise plans at all. It was as if Alvin has been here before." Fritzie said quietly, but cheerfully. She gave them the thumbs up, "Let's get to work."

To Simon, this was a total relief. The guy was so drunk that he unknowingly made their job so much easier. He unceremoniously handed Alvin the screwdriver before both moved on to their objectives.

Fritzie stood in one spot and began doing what she came for, being on guard. The watching feeling was really beginning to get on her nerves, but she fought with herself to ignore that feeling. It began creeping closer to them.

Simon crept over to the car exhaust, pulling out the two potatoes he took from the house out of his pack. The first potato didn't fit, which was exactly why he took an extra. The second potato, which was smaller than the first, fit in the exhaust perfectly. He gingerly shoved it as far as he could, which wasn't exactly that far considering he was a chipmunk. He dared not grab a stick to shove it in farther, so he just hoped that it would be enough.

He then approached the driver's window. A wide smirk appeared on his face when he reached in and opened up the gas cap cover from the inside. A satisfying pop noise, and no car alarm, meant that Simon was a happy camper. He couldn't get over the smell of hemp in the car though. The other potato rolled out of his hand and onto the driver's seat, which gave him an idea. He wedged the potato deep under the guy's brake pedal, and grinned.

After he did that, he went back and unscrewed the actual cap and dumped in the contents of the five pound bag of sugar. He crossed his fingers and hoped that that was enough, before crumbling the bag and sticking it in his pocket. Once done, he put the gas cap back on, and closed the gas cap door.

He then took the glue out of his other pocket. He looked at it cautiously, then put it back in his pocket, deciding to save that for later. There was no future if he accidentally glued himself to the seat.

Meanwhile, Alvin began cheerfully peppering up the guy's house. Observing the house in front of him, he began noticing more and more what Fritzie meant. And the grin on his face got more and more dark when he realized that his plan was not only going to work exactly to plan, it was going to work even _better_ with the flower box and the door. Nothing was going to get in his way now.

Firstly, he took the newspaper out of his pack. He went over to place it in the newspaper box, but halfway walking there, he got a better idea- the original idea he came up with. He laid it gently on the lawn, at a haphazard angle.

He then walked over to the front door. He stole a glance at Fritzie, who glanced back and gave him the thumb up, before beginning his work on the front door. He noticed that the door was fairly old, and the hinges were painted over. Careful not to make a sound, he took all of the screws out of the door side of the hinges. He left the screws in on the door frame, because he wanted people to be able to screw the door back on if they needed it. With the hinges painted over so crudely though, it might take a little force for him to cause the door to fly off his hinges. He hoped that it was enough. He put the screwdriver in his pocket.

Carefully, he placed the banana peel (which looked good and old now) on the doorstep. He chuckled to himself silently. If he fell, he would probably crack his head on the doorstep, which would justify Fritzie's second concussion.

Finally, he opened up the 'tub of breakfast' and pulled the bag out. It was raunchy, but it was bearable at least for now. He noted the flower box, then decided to do something evil. He spilled the contents out of the bag, and into the flower box unprotected. That would be hell to clean up if he ever got the chance to do it. Chances are, he wouldn't, but it would help compound on the blinding rage that Alvin wanted. He stuffed the tupperware container back in his pack.

Simon reached back into the window and laid the glue down on the seat. He was careful not to get any on his fur at all, because if that happened then he would have to cut some of his fur off, leaving obvious bald patches. After leaving a nice healthy coating, and nearly emptying the whole tube generously over the seat, he sealed the cap tight. After checking that there was no glue remains where the cap was, he put the glue back in his pocket, just as Alvin finished throwing the bag out in the guy's trash cans, which were generously open for him to use.

Fritzie spun around towards the bushes just as the two began approaching her signaling the task was done, causing them to freeze up in fear. Then, something jumped out of the bushes.


	19. Chapter 18: Surpressing the Fury

**Feh, only two reviews. (Sighs)**

**Again, there's a song in this chapter. I had to do some slight lyric alterations to the song, just to fit the situation. The lyric changes howeverare so subtle, that you really won't notice it once you listen to the song. Ditto and whatnot like with the other songs, if you are a slower reader, read first, then listen and read.**

**Anyways, I reiterate, reviews make my day better. I haven't exactly been having the best week.**

**Enjoy the chapter.**

**-----------------Chapter 18: Suppressing the Fury-------------------**

Fritzie threw her hands into her face. It was only a cat. That paranoid watching feeling over the past twenty minutes was just a freaking _cat!_ No wonder it felt so familiar. She fixed a glare at the cat, and it darted under the car they were sabotaging and went out the other side. Fritzie rolled her eyes. Didn't the cat know that she was tame-

After Alvin and Simon both sighed quietly in relief to themselves, and hearing the guy still snoring loudly, a new look of concern arose when Fritzie approached the car.

Something caught her eye. She couldn't pinpoint what at first, but she went over to examine the car. The car, not surprisingly, looked nicer than the house itself. She studied Simon's work inside the car. The massive amount of glue Simon used was near invisible on the car seat, but it could be a pink for all she could know and the guy would still storm into the car. She could feel it. She thought for a second.

'When the cat ran under the car, something registered... the rims?' She thought to herself, then peered around to get a good look at the left rim. A flashback came to her.

_Fritzie's head lifted dangerously close to the edge of the wheel. Remarkably, she managed to escape a potentially bitter end there by a few hairs. She did another two rolls, popped up over the curb, gently, and landing softly on the grass._

'Left front wheel.' A voice came into her mind. She stooped down to take a look at the rim. There was a small tuft of hair, and a bit of skin caught on the rim. She nosed her way closer, not touching it.

She began trying to identify it. It looked like her own hair. She got up and backed up.

Simon walked over to Fritzie, noticing something was wrong. "What's the matter?"

Fritzie felt the back of her head, by her ears in particular. Bald spot, back of her right ear. Scab.

After a full twelve hours of being convinced that it was a near hit and run, or road rage, a new message began playing over and over in her mind. _Hit and run, hit and run, hit and run!_

All of her fur, _all_ of it, stood on end like needles.

Simon looked worriedly at Fritzie. "Are you alright?"

* * *

**KEY SONG: CHEVELLE- "THE RED"**

Fritzie clenched both of her fists, half in anger, and half trying to control herself. She pointed at what she was looking at. "Look what I found." she muttered irritably, trying incredibly hard not to explode.

_They say freak,  
__When your singled out._

Simon crouched down and took a look at what Fritzie was pointing at. He pushed his glasses to his face in disappointment. "So it would appear that this was indeed a hit and run, not just a close call."

_The red...  
__It filters though._

Fritzie started shutting out the world after Simon said that, and her blood began to boil very quickly. Alvin and Simon got a satisfying enough revenge, now she wanted a go.

_So lay down-  
__The threat is real._

Simon cleaned off his glasses. "We can only hope that the police are as observant in their investigations as you were just now. If we tell Dave, he'll most certainly realize what we were doing to get this piece of evidence," he said, trying to be the calm headed one of the three.

_When this sight-  
__Goes red again..._

She looked menacingly at the house next to her, and walked stiffly out towards the street. She didn't want to be lookout anymore, she wanted to rip the guy's throat out.

Alvin scurried over to Simon. "What's going on, why aren't we leaving yet?"

Simon merely pointed at the rim, and Alvin threw his hands in his face.

_Seeing red again_

He began to feel the most intense anger nearby, something that he never felt in his life before.

_Seeing red again_

It made him feel absolutely uncomfortable, and he backed away in fear.

_This change,  
__She won't contain._

Fritzie stared cold as ice at the house, not paying much attention to Simon approaching her. Simon shot Alvin a needless 'stay there' look as he swallowed his temptation to call out to her. It would do them no good to wake up the neighborhood right now.

_Slip away,  
__To clear your mind._

He walked up to Fritzie. "Fritzie," he began, "I know there's no guarantee that the police will find the evidence by themselves, but if we can somehow prove that it was a hit and run, hes all but guaranteed to get a six month jail sentence at the least for that."

_When asked,  
__What made it show?_

Simon ventured a hand onto Fritzie's shoulder, which made Fritzie twitch almost violently. Alvin ducked instinctively. Fritzie, however, tried to work up the warmest look in her eyes that she could possibly muster through her near blinding rage.

_The truth  
__She can't send to most._

"Oh, it's not that I'm reacting to. I'm trying to keep myself from _murdering_ that inconsiderate swine." she whispered irritably and sharply. She lightly pushed Simon's hand of her shoulder.

_So lay down-  
__The threat is real._

"What we need to do is make sure the police can find it out without us further tampering with the evidence much more than what we've already done. I'd like to offer my services if you'd take them." Simon said reassuringly, but slightly frightened.

_When this sight-  
__Goes red again._

Fritzie stood absolutely still. "One service right now. Not trying to sound mean, but _don't_ touch me right now," she growled quietly in warning. "I don't want to do anything stupid, just give me a few moments to let me calm myself down."

Simon backed up a step fearfully, putting his hands in his pockets. "A-a-as you wish," he stammered, remaining fairly close to her. Yes, he was scared of what she might do, she was a dog after all and he was only a chipmunk, but he also figured that she needed a friend. Someone to talk to.

"I understand how you feel," he continued, not really caring if Fritzie was listening or not, "I wanted to do that when I first saw Theodore, and I'm sure that the same thing applies to Alvin and Dave. But it's not worth getting incarcerated for.

_So lay down-  
__The threat is real._

He turned around, after starting to walk away. "When you're ready, Alvin and I will be just over here. You deserve your own revenge was well and we're more than happy to help out."

Alvin let out a cheesy grin, then went back to shivering.

_When this sight-  
__Goes red again._

Fritzie nodded and gulped, but the flushing anger didn't let up. It became more prominent, and inside the back of her mind, she was afraid that this discovery would ruin the sabotage.

_So lay down-  
__The threat is real._

However, Fritzie couldn't just stand still any longer. She had to do **something** to get her revenge, and if it wasn't right now, it would have to be later that morning. Alvin and Simon froze up when Fritzie started to move.

_When this sight-  
__Goes red again..._

Fritzie walked over to the car and grinned evilly. She crouched down, and retracted out her claws. She reached into the muffler, and fished the potato out from inside the car. She grabbed it with her other fist, and crushed it to nothing.

_Seeing red again!  
__Seeing red again!  
__Seeing red again!  
__Seeing red again!  
__Seeing red again!  
__Seeing red again!  
__Seeing red again!_

Fritzie began to grin even more evilly, staring coldly right through Alvin and Simon, her vision going red before her eyes. A demon inside of her, after all of the crap that she had endured over the past two years, was trying its absolute hardest to get out. An internal war began erupting for the last of her control.

_Seeing red!_

When the final ounce of control left her, she took one step forward, then suddenly, began to feel real dizzy. It was a familiar feeling, the same dizziness that was plaguing her ever since the accident.

_They say freak,  
__When you're singled out._

She crouched down to the ground and ran her fingers down her face in stress. She looked up at Alvin and Simon, who were now approaching her. "How loud was I?" she asked dizzily.

_The red-  
__It filters through..._

Alvin and Simon looked at each other, slightly relieved but still afraid.

After an uncomfortable moment's silence, Alvin sighed quietly to himself. "Not a sound."

* * *

Anger mainly gave out to tiredness. She was still quite pissed about her discovery, but now that the dizziness re-sparked her self control, it was a relieving feeling, and it was an advantage of having a moderate concussion.

"Good." Fritzie said quietly, picking herself up. "I'm sorry if I scared you guys, I was totally not expecting that."

Alvin and Simon quietly nodded

Fritzie perked her ears up. The snoring didn't even change a tone from inside the house. She looked around the neighborhood. In that brief window, anyone could have spotted them. Considering that she didn't feel anyone's gaze but Simon and Alvin's, she sighed in relief a little bit, but they were still in possible danger. She looked at the potato she crushed.

"Well, I guess since the potato is done, I hope now that the guy stalls close to your house. I still want to give him a piece of my mind." Fritzie said with a similarly, but nowhere near what it was, evil grin. She checked the exhaust pipe to make sure that she didn't leave any hair. None, clear, good.

She flipped open her cell phone real fast. It was a little past four in the morning. They were out way later than they were supposed to.

"We better pack up and get out of here." Fritzie said quickly in the quiet tone that they had been using. She closed her phone gently and stuffed it back in her pocket. "Its past four, we need to get out of here, now." She then began walking back the way they came in a rush.

Simon and Alvin checked themselves to make sure that they had everything. Then without further hesitation, they ran off after her.

"Okay, so you know what to do when we get home right?" Fritzie said over her shoulder.

"Go to sleep?" Alvin asked with a yawn. Fritzie shook her head.

"Not yet. Okay, Simon, when we get home, take out the trash. If Dave is observant as I think he is, he will notice the leftovers and the newspaper missing. Tell him that you needed a drink in the middle of the night and you couldn't tolerate the smell. If he asks about the newspaper, you subconsciously threw it away, since you were taking the trash out anyways."

Simon nodded, understanding why Fritzie asked him. Like Dave would believe that Alvin would willingly throw out the trash. "Alright."

"And Alvin." Fritzie said as they rounded the first corner hurriedly.

"Yeah?" Alvin asked sleepily.

"Throw away the blueprint upstairs before Simon throws out the trash, and clean out the tupperware container. I know asking dishes might be a little much, but I don't want to lay the entire thing on Simon."

Alvin hesitated a complained and nodded. "What will you be doing?" he asked, trying to hold a complaint back.

"I'm keeping guard. I want to make sure that everyone is asleep while we do this. Got it?" Fritzie jeered particularly at Alvin.

"Yes'm," Alvin mumbled. Simon smirked to himself about Alvin not arguing.

Fritzie briskly checked her pockets. The letters, her wallet, GPS, and cell phone were accounted for, which was perfect. She didn't leave anything behind.

From there on, the rest of their five minute run home was in silence. Nobody was out and about, and there were no lights on, which made it smooth and simple.

Once they arrived home, they all took a moment to breathe and calm down before going inside. Fritzie stepped on slightly ahead and listened to the house. Dave amazingly didn't change a tone at all, which meant that Theodore was probably asleep the whole time. Theodore's tone, however was a bit different. He was still deep asleep, but it sounded like he was in a different position, probably rolled over or something.

It was 4:30, which meant that they better get whatever they needed to do done right now.

"Simon, when we get inside," Alvin whispered, "put the glue and screwdriver away first, through the house this time. I don't know where you found them. I'll go upstairs and put our bags away, grab the diagram, and wash out the container."

"Alright." Simon whispered, regulating his breathing first, then handing Alvin his spare backpack. He took the screwdriver from Alvin. "And after this, I will bag up the trash. Try to be quick about it, okay?"

Alvin gave Simon a smug look. "When am I not quick?"

Simon rolled his eyes. "Want the list?"

"Okay, I get the point." Alvin groaned. "Okay, when I say act, we do it. Ready, act!"

Alvin and Simon both set off to finish their objectives, while Fritzie stood by the stairwell and listened.

Simon opened the door to the garage from inside the house quietly. He put the glue and the screwdriver in roughly the places he found them. Dave wouldn't notice if they weren't in exact places. After doing that, he crept out of the garage quietly and closed the door behind him silently. He crept as fast as he could to the kitchen, and waited for Alvin.

Alvin ran up the stairs as quietly as he could, taking his shoes off and placing the two backpacks where they belonged, taking the tupperware container out before finishing putting his away. He then took the diagram out from under his covers, crumpled it up, and brought both downstairs.

He passed the paper ball to Simon, who promptly bagged the trash up. The trash already smelled like leftovers, so Dave wouldn't suspect a thing.

Simon hurried outside with the trash, while Alvin washed the tupperware container. Alvin quickly dried the container and put it back in the pantry that had all of the other containers. When Alvin finished, Simon came in and washed his hands, and both met up with Fritzie at the stairwell. They went upstairs, and Fritzie followed them to their room.

"Neither of them woke up during our home bout." Fritzie said, noting how Dave and Theodore's snores didn't change pattern at all. "I can't guarantee that either of them were asleep the entire hour and a half we were gone, but we can only hope so."

Fritzie scratched her fur. "Anyways, I'm going back to 'sleep' downstairs. If Dave asks you why you are so tired tomorrow morning, just say 'rough night, didn't sleep well.'" Fritzie whispered quietly and winked. "Tomorrow is going to be a long day, but after that swine has been caught, we can finally hang out... as normal as we can. Night."

"Night." Alvin and Simon chorused sleepily. Fritzie opened the door and slipped out quietly, and headed downstairs. She took note that Theodore was sleeping less soundly now than he was a few minutes ago, which meant that she better get herself into position. That one was almost too close. She slipped off her jeans and put them where she found them, and curled up into a ball on the armchair. She then began drifting into a more pleasant, dreamy sleep.

Alvin quickly changed into his usual nightwear and carelessly tossed his clothes on the floor next to his bed. He fell asleep almost instantly.

Simon also swapped his everyday attire for his nightwear, carelessly tossing his clothes on the ground. He fell asleep before his head hit the pillow. It had been a long and tiring day, sure to be followed by another one.

* * *

**Unless I get real ambitious, Chapter 19 comes tomorrow.**


	20. Chapter 19: The Morning After

**Heads up, the next three chapters is the only reason why this story gets its T rating instead of getting K .. minor language, minor sexual references (I do not contribute to Rule 34, its what every teenage guy dreams of from time to time.  :P), and well, you'll have to see what else.**

**Thank you for the usual reviews Nikki and Dice, glad you guys are liking it so much.  I'm considering expanding the storyline to not only just the sequel (which is at an 80 of happening right now), but also a few bonus songs and maybe even a short.  I will bring the shorts up once I get to the final chapter.**

**If I can at least get three reviews between now and 8 PM eastern, I will upload Chapter 20 today as well.  After Chapter 20 though, I will have to release it at one chapter at a time, because the next few chapters are _quite_ lengthy.**

**I'm in a much better mood, I just got my tax return three weeks earlier than I thought, and my debt to my mom (I have been behind on my 'rent' or 'household contributions' for over a year now.) is finally down to about 125.  In otherwords, I will be scott-free in about a month!  :D  That's something to be happy about.**

**Finally, some Theodore and Fritzie interaction.  Throughout the story, you saw Fritzie interact a whole lot with Simon, some of Alvin, but barely with Theodore.  Now the two get to talk to each other.  :P**

**Anyways, leave me a few reviews, hell, tell your friends!  Reviews makes my day sexy.  And since I'm in a better mood, cheers, enjoy the next chapter.**

-Narf

**(PS:  If anyone can get the cartoon reference I left in the second paragraph of Chapter 19 will get something really nice!  I don't expect anyone to get it at all, but the two clues to you are its a Feature Animated Film, and it came out in 1986.  Happy Hunting!)**

**(PPS:  If you have the movie I just referenced, please please make my day and upload it on YouTube!  I haven't seen that movie since I was like three and I dearly miss it.  I only found out what the real title of the movie was about three weeks ago, I was missing a word.  XD)**

**--Chapter 19: The Morning After--**

Theodore began lightly waking up somewhere near 7:30 that morning, after a comfortable enough night's sleep. He slept quite soundly, which felt very refreshing.

Fritzie, sleeping very comfortably on the armchair, was in a pleasantly colorful dream about dancing mushrooms, a painter who could magically paint things in a forest, and some cactus monster who turned into a weird flowery watermelon object. It was quite trippy, but comforting none the less.

He rolled over onto his left side to stretch out, but a sharp pain snapped him back part of the way to reality. I was so sudden though in fact, that he unintentionally yipped rather loudly.

Fritzie poofed out of whatever colorfully trippy dream she was pleasantly snoring to and swiveled her head around frantically trying to figure out where the hell that noise just came from. It was a shrill enough high pitch squeak to wake her out of a rather deep sleep.

Theodore reacted to Fritzie's sudden franticness and his eyes widened a little bit. When Fritzie got a grasp on what happened, she rolled out of the armchair on her back and sighed, creeping her way down to the floor.

Theodore felt very well rested. Any traces of headache that he might have had was totally gone, the only remainder of pain in his head was a light bruise from where his head knocked into the curb the afternoon before. At first though, he didn't quite remember what happened yesterday. The slight shock of waking up so suddenly disoriented him enough to leave him scratching his head.

He went to the collar of his t-shirt to adjust it, as if it were his pajamas. When he suddenly realized that it wasn't his pajamas, he looked at his stomach. He was still in his clothes that he was wearing yesterday. He got himself up further, to a sitting position and noticed the splint on his left leg, and then it all came back to a bit more clearer. It's not that he forgot, he just wasn't awake.

He sat up further to get a better inspection on his leg. He didn't quite get to see it in full light. He examined his left shin. It was purple from his kneecap almost all the way down to his ankle. It didn't hurt anywhere near as bad as it initially was yesterday, but whatever pain medication he had last night wore off completely, and it ached uncontrollably. He groaned softly, but it was more in disappointment than in pain instead.

Fritzie flipped herself over, after her little creeping onto the floor, and got up. She itched her fur, noticing that she fell asleep anthropomorphic and woke up anthropomorphic. Sometimes, even she didn't understand her little transforming trick.

She lifted an ear, to get a status check on the rest of the beings sleeping in the house. She channeled her hearing, to find that Dave was only lightly sleeping- albeit sound enough not to react to Theodore's pain squeak. On the contrary though, Alvin and Simon sounded almost comatose. It irked her a little bit that they would eventually be awakened pretty soon, if not on their own, by Dave's imminent fury.

She approached the hapless chipmunk blinking stupidly around the room on the couched, and sat down on the coffee table, which was moved over so that Dave could unravel the bed.

"Morning buddy," she said softly, giving Theodore the look-over. When she saw what Theodore's leg really looked like, she involuntarily flinched. She was stunned at herself on how damaging she could be. Maybe it would come in handy at another time, though?

"Morning," he said shyly. He gazed around the living room. It felt weird waking up downstairs, and even stranger waking up with someone else in the room that he didn't really know.

She took another look at Theodore's leg. Her eye twitched, but it was a little bit of a better reaction than to her first flinch. She better get used to it now, because it was going to be all too familiar of a sight to see for the next week. Finally summoning the courage to say something again, after one final wince, she looked weakly at Theodore and said "You feeling any better dude?" Of course, it was probably a ridiculously stupid question, but she couldn't think of anything better to ask.

Theodore nodded. He did feel a bit better. Since the headache was gone, it made everything else much easier to cope with. He was a little stiff from the way that he was sleeping though. He naturally slept on his left side, which made it a major problem. "Yeah, I feel a bit better, but it still hurts though."

Fritzie's ears drooped. Instinctively, she knew that was what she was going to hear, after all, Theodore was known for his rather brutal honesty. All the same though, it didn't feel reassuring, and it certainly wasn't the answer she wanted to hear. In her mind, she wished that he would have stopped at 'I feel a bit better.' She got up off the couchbed.

Theodore blinked, taken aback by what he said. "I'm not upset though," he said, trying to recover from his little slip up. "Don't be scared, honestly, I'm not upset."

Fritzie looked over her shoulder and forced a smile. "I'm not scared, at least, I'm not trying to look like it. I just have so much sympathy, or in your case- empathy, for anyone I really care about that it hurts to hear it. You seem so nice, and I feel so bad for-"

Theodore began giggling. "I don't blame you for this at all. What you did for me is all I could just dream about in a situation like that. I'll trade getting hit by a car for a broken leg, any day."

Fritzie turned around, a slight twinkle in her eye.

"Don't worry about me, Fritzie. I'm not a downer. The glass is half full," he said reassuringly. "You shouldn't be sorry. It came from your heart."

Fritzie let out a genuine smile, her eyes lighting up. It wouldn't mean that it would stop the endless empathy, but it would mean that she would completely stop blaming herself for what happened last night. Hearing Theodore, in different words, forgive her lifted her spirits. And it made them siblings, with an unbreakable bond.

It also, inadvertently, made her even more pissed about her discovery the night before. She couldn't bring herself to truly hurt the guy responsible, but giving him a good scare for his money sounded well, suitable enough.

Fritzie turned around and headed for the stairwell. Halfway there, she turned around and looked a little more in concern at Theodore. "Want me to get Dave up for you?"

Theodore's stomach rumbled, but he was also silently calling out for a pain killer. He really didn't want to become dependent on them, but today it felt sort of needed. Either way, he wanted breakfast. "Yes please," he said quietly, and lied down again.

Fritzie's eyes dropped, before making her way upstairs and entering the familiar hallway. Instead of taking the door right there, which was the boys' room, she made a right and entered Dave's room. The door was closed, so she quietly opened it.

The room was fairly dark. The shades were cleverly shut, leaving the illusion of darkness in the room. Of course, Fritzie could see through the dim light clear as day, but who was to say what humans could see in the low light?

She approached Dave. He was sleeping much lighter now than he was when she woke up ten minutes ago, but was still somewhat asleep. He would be pretty easy to wake up with a gentle rubbing. The thought though made her wonder how well I slept that night, or in my case, late night through the morning into mid afternoon. I'll be the first to admit my horrible sleeping patterns.

She rubbed Dave's arm lightly. "Dave?" she asked softly, trying to wake him up as gently as possible.

"Go back to bed Alvin," Dave mumbled as he slightly stirred from his sleep. Fritzie rubbed his arm a little more gingerly.

"I'm not Alvin, Dave," she said a little louder. Dave's eyelids fluttered open. After worrying himself sick to sleep, he slept like a baby, not waking up until about seven that morning very briefly before rolling over and shoving another pillow under his head. He blinked the sleep away from his eyes and unfocusedly looked at Fritzie. He yawned and stretched, before getting a better look.

"Hmmm? Oh, sorry Fritzie. I've gotten so used to Alvin being the one to wake me up. Good morning, is everything alright?" he asked sleepily. In his mind, probably not, since he was being woken up.

"Well, I'm alright. Theodore woke up though, and although he's real strong about it, I think he would like some pain medication. I think it would make him feel a little better." Fritzie said with a soft smile. She began to feel amazingly hungry, which was rather uncharacteristic for her in the morning, but she dared not mention anything about breakfast _just_ yet. She didn't want to sound imposing.

Dave nodded as he swung his legs out of bed and stood up. "I appreciate you waking me up Fritzie, did Tal mention what time he was going to call today?" he asked as he made his way to the down the hallway to the bathroom on the other side of the boys' room. Dave went to go grab the strip of pain medication Doctor Harris gave him the night before. He had to fill out the prescription today, even if he didn't want to leave the kids home alone after what happened yesterday.

Fritzie blinked stupidly. The question blindsided her. I mean, she was expecting the question to come up, but not _that_ soon. She sighed.

"No, he didn't. He called during his break as I said yesterday, and he worked until closing, which is something like two in the morning our time. My guess, is that he's going to sleep late though, and if he does call, it will be something around 10:30 here in this time zone.

"Alright," Dave nodded. He was rather eager to put his guest's guardian's mind at ease, if only because he could only imagine the worry he was going through.

As he walked past the boys' room on the way downstairs, he could hear both of them snoring away very loudly. He wasn't surprised at all, after what happened yesterday, and even Simon liked to sleep late occasionally.

As he descended the stairs with Fritzie, he made a quick detour into the kitchen to get Theodore a cold glass of water to help him down his medication. After getting the water, he made his way into the living room and sat down next to Theodore on the couchbed. Theodore sat up and looked comfortingly at Dave. Seeing Theodore taking this lighter than expected made him smile.

"Here you go, Theodore. This will help you feel better," he said, giving Theodore the glass of water and the pain medicine. He rubbed his hand reassuringly on Theodore's shoulder. It would have been so easy to have lost him for good yesterday.

Theodore eagerly took the pain medicine. Recoiling slightly at the taste of the tablet, he downed it with the cold water no problem. He was never going to get used to the taste of that crap.

Dave got up, rather reluctantly and looked down critically at his son. "Since you are out of commission in the kitchen for a while Theodore, what would you like for breakfast?"

Theodore thought for a second. There was so many choices, but he was so hungry, that he wanted to make up his mind quickly. What was his favorite breakfast food, something that he hasn't had in a while..

"Hmm, I'd say blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes.. but we ran out of flour yesterday."

"I could run up and go get flour, I don't mind." Dave offered.

"You don't mind? I mean, I promise I won't be going anywhere." Theodore said with a grin.

"Of course I don't mind Theodore." Dave said, ruffling his son's hair fringe. Inside him, he didn't want to leave the boys home alone, but it was better to go now or never. "Is there anything else you'd like me to get while I'm out?" This meant that Dave could go to the local pharmacy to pick up Theodore's prescription.

Theodore rolled his eyes up in thought. Other than magically healing his leg, he couldn't think of anything else. "No thank you Dave, I can't think of anything else."

Fritzie's stomach finally audibly growled. The blueberry and chocolate chip pancake idea sounded absolutely wonderful. Dogs being allergic to chocolate? It was a popular myth, but it was only _just_ that- a myth. Fritzie fairly regularly had chocolate. "Wow, that sounds amazingly good." She said, scratching the back of her head. She scratched her right ear, it felt completely weird. She looked at her hands and scratched at it again. She didn't want to reveal any secrets about last night, but she figured Dave should know about it _now_, now that she scratched back there. She wrinkled her nose.

"Humph, that's funny. No wonder why it's so itchy." Fritzie commented to herself. The bald spot was actually only the size of a pebble, but it was enough for her to notice, yet for it to be easily missed. It was in a rather cleverly hidden spot too, behind her ear.

Dave looked alarmed. "What's the matter?" he asked worriedly, he knew that this probably wasn't good.

"There's a bald spot on the back of my ear," Fritzie said plaintively.

"Bald spot?" Dave said, even more worriedly. He reluctantly left his son's side and approached Fritzie, not approaching too much without the proper invite of course. "Do you mind if I had a look?"

Nobody else had a look at the bald spot yet, so it was only suiting that he would assess the damage. "No, please. Go right ahead, I'm a little worried about it."

Dave walked over and examined the spot. Sure enough, the bald spot started with a cut, then sheared the hair clean at an odd angle. It did _not_ look like it could have been just a scrape, the hair was a straight line. And Fritzie wouldn't just cut herself like that to try to frame the man either. "I take it that this wasn't there before the accident?" he asked. If not, then that meant that this was more than just a dangerous run in with a lunatic.

Fritzie rubbed it again. It didn't itch at all yesterday, but then again, she was either drugged out on headache medicine, or in too much pain to recognize that it was itchy. The itch clearly wasn't there though the day before. She would have known if she cut herself in the back of her ear.

"No, it wasn't.. well, at least I think it wasn't. I did notice the itch slightly after the accident, but because my head hurt so badly, I couldn't didn't really notice it much. It doesn't hurt, it just feels.. weird. Strangely naked. I'm not used to open air hitting my skin, except for my belly perhaps," she said, scratching her tummy. It was the only place where she wasn't covered by a thick layer of fur, but rather a thinner layer of fur.

Despite the fact that she was only hit minimally, she truly never really would have noticed it unless she found it out the hard way. She had to bring it up a different way though, because one mere mention about finding out about it last night, and she, along with Alvin and Simon, would be busted before Dave even got to go to the store.

But even then, a touch of resentment began to flare in her eyes. She could only hope that the ingrate wouldn't end up sleeping all day like Tal does. She wanted him to get up and drive his car right into her trap. All the same though, she didn't want it to happen right then and there either. The perfect time would be right when Dave got home from his errands. It sounded like a golden opportunity. In the meantime though, she wanted to converse with the brother that looked forward to connecting with the most. She got to connect with Alvin and Simon better than she could expect, but she still didn't get to hang with Theodore much.

A very irritated look washed over Dave's face. First the guy nearly runs his youngest son down, and now he found out that the man hit his rescuer? Even if it is the slightest hit, it still counts as a hit and run. Fritzie was _not_ considered to be just a pet, she counts as a child in herself too. "When I get back, I'm calling the police. I'm sorry that this happened to you."

'You don't need to apologize to anything, Dave.' Fritzie thought to herself. 'Just please, take your time. I want to get my two cents in and speak on behalf of the whole family. And besides, the guy ain't going to go far.'

Dave began to ascend the stairs, pausing as he remembered something. "Since Alvin and Simon aren't awake just yet, would you mind keeping an eye on Theodore until I get back please, Fritzie?"

"Yeah, I'll keep an eye on him, but I really don't think he's going to go anywhere. Honestly, I have to keep an eye on _myself_ than I do with Teddy," she said dryly, looking out the living room windows. "I want retribution in my own way."

"Retribution? What does that mean?" Theodore asked inquisitively. "That sounds like something Simon would say."

Fritzie giggled. "It's a stronger way of saying punishment, or revenge."

Theodore put a finger to his lip in curiosity. "Oh."

"It's not exactly making sure that he stays out of trouble that I'm worried about. What I mean is 'just in case he needs some-'quot; Dave froze, then Fritzie's retribution comment clicked. "Wait, retribution?"

'Oh shit,' Fritzie thought to herself. She might of given away just too much. Inside her mind, she began searching around the filing cabinets of her mind, 'How the hell do I get out of this one!?

A slightly stern look came over Dave's face. "This is a matter for the police, alright Fritzie? We'll all get our retribution though the _proper_ channels." He backed down a step or two. "Trust me, its better this way.

Fritzie giggled. "Alright, I'll be sure to help him when and if he needs it. As for wanting retribution," she paused, finding perhaps a satisfying enough escape, "I know the way how its legally supposed to be done, but honest to goodness, can you _blame_ me for wanting to do something more.. fitting? I am a dog after all, a pint sized guard dog. I didn't do a fitting amount of 'guarding' per say, and I had my personal space violated." Inside her mind, she winced and hoped that worked.

Theodore giggled a little bit too. She was very protective of herself and others, it made him wonder how she would react to a world class ridiculous scheme of Alvin's. Then a thought panged in his mind. What did happen with that revenge idea anyways?

Dave let out a sigh. "Being Alvin's father? No, I can't blame you. In fact, instinctively, I can understand some of your anger."

Anger? Was she beginning to cave?

"But being a single father full stop doesn't mean that I don't try to look after the children in my care, whether they are mine or not. Just..quot; he said slightly exasperatedly, "try not to follow the boys into too much trouble. I don't wish to have to explain to you if you followed Alvin willingly into one of his pranks..quot;

Fritzie tried incredibly hard not to tense up. She was swearing left and right in her mind. She looked innocent and complacent, and loose. But that was not the thing running in her mind. It was kind of too late for that though, she did follow Alvin willingly into one of his pranking things.

Dave then loosened up and smiled again. "At this rate, the elder pair will be up before I'm gone. I'll be back in a half hour at the most. I'm trusting you to hold the fort Fritzie." And at that, he climbed up the stairs to go change and get his wallet.

Inside Fritzie's mind, a large sigh of relief could almost be heard even though she didn't actually sigh. Guilt is a funny emotion. It didn't change the fact that he was going to find out relatively soon.

Trying to find a way to alleviate some of her stress, she went and grabbed all of the couch and chair pillows she could find, save Theodore's, and crudely made a box fort. When Dave descended the stairs, Fritzie peered over the box wall and saluted to Dave, saying "Holding down the fort, sir yes sir!" then giggled as she began putting the pillows back where she found them, sending Theodore into an almost uncontrollable laughing fit.

"I love you, you're funny!" Theodore said out loud, in between laughs. He wanted to kick so badly, but knew he couldn't, so he improvised with his arms. Fritzie shot him a grin as she was putting the pillows away.

Dave shook his head, laughing quietly to himself. It was nice that the boys got along with the contest winner. He'd been so worried since he picked the winner that it would have been a bad idea. "If Tal calls while I'm out, just tell him that I will call him back as soon as I have made breakfast, okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine. If anything, I'll call him with my cell phone. It won't count as long distance, so it would probably save you a few dollars," Fritzie replied after putting all of the pillows back.

Dave rolled his eyes. "Fritzie, you're a guest in the house. What kind of host would I be if I didn't allow you to use the phone?"

'Caller ID,' Fritzie thought to herself, but she bit her tongue on saying that. Instead, she nodded and said, "Okay."

"Oh, and if the other two wake up before I get back," he said, 'if' being the operative word, "just let them know where I am please."

Fritzie instinctively wanted to say 'I doubt it,' when Dave said that, but she bit her tongue again and decided not to. That would probably make her sound suspicious. That and knowing her luck, they would like.. fall out of bed or something. Instead she said, "Right on," with a thumbs up. "See ya' in a little bit."

"Bye Dave, and thank you!" Theodore called from the couch cheerfully, getting over the laughing fit.

Dave poked his head back into the door and waved to them before closing the door behind him and hurrying off to his car.

Frtizie walked towards the kitchen. That little situation made her thirsty, and she wanted something other than water. Before fully making it all the way to the kitchen, she turned around and looked at Theodore. "Hey Teddy, want something to drink?"

"Uh, a glass of milk please," he said after thinking for a second, "if there's enough for pancakes, that is."

Fritzie nodded in consent as she headed for the fridge. Inside it was a near full gallon of milk. "There's plenty to go around," she called, pouring Theodore and herself a glass of it. After putting it back in, she walked over and handed Theodore the glass before lapping at her own glass. She may be a unique dog, but she was still a dog, so she _drank_ it like a dog. It was not like a bottle of soda where she could stick her tongue in it to control the flow. Theodore looked at it slightly curiously, but decided not to pay much mind to it.

Before finishing their milk though, Fritzie and Theodore were both shocked stupid when they heard a particularly loud thud coming from upstairs. Dave had just left, so they had no idea what to make of it, because Dave would have impulsively flew back up the stairs at the sound of it. What they heard couldn't exactly be good though.

In fact, in Fritzie's eyes, she spoke too soon about doubting Alvin and Simon waking up while Dave was gone.


	21. Chapter 20: Not So Bright Awakening

**Hmm, I got four reviews while I was gone, but only seven people read the last chapter. I'll be _real_ nice and go ahead and release Chapter 20. However, the final chapters will be released one at a time, becuase they begin to get real lengthy from here on.**

**So far, nobody has even tried to guess the reference I made in the last chapter. Come on, somebody has to have heard of that movie before. :(**

**Anyways, I'm going to appologize in advance, I will not be releasing Chapter 21 tomorrow. The reason is, I will be going to a friend's house tomorrow afternoon, and I go to work real early tomorrow morning. So Chapter 21 will be released on Sunday, when I get home. So that leaves plenty of time for anyone to catch up on the reading, or leave me a bunch of reviews. Did I ever mention that reviews are sexy?**

**Haha, enjoy the next chapter. XD**

-Narf

**(PS: Now that's something that mythbusters could try out.)**

**Adam: "Is it true that if you are surrounded by a group of hot middle aged women that you get a nosebleed?"  
Jaime: "Now, where could you have gotten a rediculous idea like that?"  
Adam: "Well, one of our viewers saw it on a cartoon named Naruto, but also found it in somebody else's fanfic online."**

**(Hehe, I think I found out where the idea came from. XD)**

**----------------Chapter 20: Not-So Bright Awakening-----------------**

Alvin was in the middle of a very pleasant dream. In his dream, he was surrounded by about a dozen hot middle aged women, even hotter than models. Even if he was ten, he was enjoying the sights of it all. So much, in fact, that he lightly rolled over, kicked Simon off of his bed, and both of them fell off the bed and onto the floor.

**THUD!**

Simon landed hard on his back, while Alvin fell to the floor, nose first.

Alvin squeaked loudly, and immediately proceeded to rub his nose. Not the most pleasant way to wake up out of a pleasant dream. He didn't even know that Simon was in his bed sleeping.

"Ugh, Alvin!" Simon mumbled, more than half asleep. He was unaware if Alvin kicked him out of bed, or he fell out himself. He was dreaming about discovering a new substance and he subconsciously rolled over, perhaps at the same time as Alvin. He honestly tried to fight the pain and uncomfortableness of lying on the floor and tried to fall back asleep, especially after their misdoings last night. But after a few moments of sleepily arguing with himself, he reluctantly sat up.

"Well, that's not the nicest way to wake up in the morning after only getting about three hours sleep," he muttered to himself groggily as he picked himself up and went into the bathroom to check to see if his nose was bleeding. When satisfied enough that it wasn't, he stumbled back into his room to find Simon on the floor.

Fritzie came running up the stairs shortly afterwards. She saw Alvin standing up and rubbing his nose profusely. "Omigosh, are you okay!? Theodore and I heard the thud from downstairs."

"G-give me a minute." Alvin stammered, continuing to rub his nose. It really wasn't that painful, but the shock of waking up for that reason made it worse than it actually was.

Fritzie looked over to the other side of Alvin and saw Simon, sitting groggily on the floor and leaning up against his nightstand, and shook her head. He had Alvin's blanket wrapped part of the way around him. "You _both_ fell on the floor? No wonder why the thud was so loud. You okay Simon?" she asked in concern. He nodded sleepily and got up to go downstairs to get something to drink. Alvin followed closely behind.

They both trudged into the kitchen and poured themselves a glass of milk before trudging their part of the way into the living room. Simon more so than Alvin was still relatively unaware of his surroundings.

Fritzie followed after them. So much for them sleeping in to a decent hour. "Would you guys like some aspirin? It sounded like your falls hurt and I don't mind playing the medic."

Simon held up his hand and shook his head no. Alvin shook his head no as well. Nothing was broken, so they would be fine, but both of them might end up with some nice bruises from it.

"You sure?" Fritzie asked. Simon rolled his eyes at Fritzie and sat down on the other available couch. Talking just wasn't his thing at the moment, that would come later, when he was semi-functioning. He took a sip of his milk. Alvin sat down next to him and rubbed his nose again.

Fritzie's ears dropped at Simon's reaction to her. She felt slightly hurt, and a wounded expression flashed across her face. She could understand the reaction, and she somewhat expected it. But it actually happening was a different story, as it was many times before in the last day.

Theodore watched as his unnaturally agitated and sleepy brothers trudged in. His more radiant smile quickly turned into a concerned frown as soon as he saw them. "Morning guys, are you okay?" he said worriedly, scooting up on the couchbed and began searching for his shiny stainless steel crutches.

Simon finished his milk, feeling more like his normal self. He opened his mouth to speak, but a jaw cracking yawn escaped instead. He frowned slightly and tried again. "We're fine," he said huskily, his voice hoarse and his eyes heavy. "It just feels like I didn't get much sleep last night." He began contemplating making himself a cup of coffee. Although he was only ten, it sounded like a good way how to wake himself up. Oh, sweet caffeine. He cleared his throat. "How are you, Theodore?" he said with a slightly cleaner voice. Alvin let out a sleepy moan, before he let out a jaw cracking yawn.

"I'm feeling much better, thanks," Theodore said shyly, finding his crutches and getting up out of bed. He observed how tired Simon and Alvin actually _were_. It made him suspicious if they actually carried out some sort of revenge in the middle of the night, more than ever. "Why are you so tired this morning? You look like you have been up all night, and so do you Alvin."

Simon shared a look with Alvin, unconsciously. It made Theodore suspect something even more. If they didn't do anything last night, Simon would not have done that. Theodore's question however, helped wake Simon up a little bit. "Couldn't get to sleep," he said simply, with a shrug. Not that it was a lie, per say. It was just missing a few details.

"I couldn't sleep that well myself, yesterday was a bit hard on me." Alvin said groggily. He was more awake than Simon, but sounded equally as bad as him. He rubbed his nose again.

Fritzie sighed. 'At least they are sober enough not to let anything slip,' she thought to herself. She could feel Theodore's rising suspicion, but she kept her mouth shut.

"Where's Dave?" Alvin said suggestively. He didn't exactly know what to talk about, since he wanted to conceal last night's outing, but he noticed that Dave wasn't swarming all over Theodore like a hornet's nest.

"Oh, Dave went to the store to get flour, and presumably, Theodore's prescription medicine," Fritzie replied. She didn't know for sure if Dave was getting Theodore's pain medicine, but after yesterday, it was an equally logical guess that probably wasn't too far from the truth. "He'll be back in a little bit."

"Oh cool! Does that mean I can speak my mind?" Alvin blurted out, not realizing what he said. The back of his mind wanted him to tell his baby brother, but the front of his mind didn't want to just yet. Fritzie's eye twitched. Alvin then began fumbling around for a cover up.

Simon reached over and tried to cuff Alvin's mouth shut, but instead cuffed Alvin's ears and fell stupidly onto the couch. Simon was perhaps more awake now at mind, but his body wasn't. "Alvin!" Simon hissed. With great effort, Simon pulled himself back up to sitting and sunk heavily into the couch. "So there was no reason to get up just yet then?" he complained, a little sad that they dramatically cut their sleeping hours.

"Get up!?" Alvin squeaked complaintively, "Do you think I _wanted_ to get up!? I fell out of bed! Why do you think I'm constantly rubbing my nose?" he said sadly, rubbing his nose once again. He thought for a second. "How did you end up in my bed, anyways?"

A wave of sub-relief washed over Fritzie. 'I guess that's a way of speaking your mind, Alvin.' she thought to herself. Theodore's suspicion didn't ease one bit though.

"How did I end up in iyour/i bed!? You landed in _my_ bed. Where was I supposed to sleep? On the floor?" Simon snapped at Alvin. Alvin folded his arms.

"Then explain to me why you were on the floor with my blanket then?" Alvin snapped back. Simon's eye twitched.

Fritzie shook her head in annoyance. She didn't want them to fight about something like this. "Alvin does have a point, Simon. You did have Alvin's blanket wrapped around you."

Simon hung his head. I guess that's enough evidence in itself.

Theodore shook his head no at the unfolded argument. "You two are real weird this morning. Did you carry out that revenge that you guys were talking about in the car yesterday while Fritzie and I were sleeping?" Simon and Alvin's eyes both twitched. Was Theodore paying attention to the whole thing?

Fritzie's eye twitched inside her mind as well. 'You don't even know the half of it,' she thought to herself.

"Because I could just _know_ that you two were planning something out before we even left the hospital yesterday," he continued with a skeptical look on his face.

"Planning is something completely different than actually carrying it out," Simon interjected before Alvin could dig their grave. "Of course we were planning something, you're our baby brother. But that doesn't mean we went through with it. As Dave said to us yesterday, it's a matter for the judicial system."

Alvin remained silent while they were ahead. Of course, he wanted to tell his brother about it, but perhaps now was not the time. It eased Theodore's almost blaring suspicion, but not completely. Theodore would find out eventually, in fact, most likely later today. He just hoped that the culprit didn't drive by their house like Fritzie hoped for.

Fritzie also remained silent, and hoped that Simon's excuse was enough to settle Theodore a little bit. She walked towards the front door to take a look outside. It was a beautiful day outside. She closed the front door and sat back down in the armchair that she was pleasantly sleeping in this morning, and assumed to play around with her cell phone.

Theodore rolled his eyes and started making his way towards the kitchen.

Simon was just about to shut his eyes to maybe get another few minutes of sleep in before Dave came home, but out of the corner of his eye he was Fritzie playing with her cell phone. "You waiting for a call?" he mumbled into the arm of the couch.

Fritzie, with her good hearing, heard him clearly. "Somewhat. Tal could call anytime between now and ten. I doubt he will call later than that, but I'm beginning to think that I doubt things too much. He's a rather heavy sleeper, so although I don't think he will sleep later than ten your time, I would completely understand if we end up giving him a wake up call." Fritzie said meekly, checking her phone log to see if she had any missed calls. None, good.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Dave and him were supposed to talk about yesterday afternoon sometime this morning," he said sleepily, trying to nod off.

Theodore looked into the fridge to get himself something to eat to tie himself over at least until Dave made breakfast. He went to go grab one of the last remaining ripe red apples, when he noticed how _clean_ the fridge was. Now, he knew that they did something in the middle of the night.

"Wow, what spurred you guys to eat all of the leftovers?" Theodore asked in concern, taking a bit of the apple he grabbed. If he didn't eat it, nobody did.

Simon sat up a little bit more. He was expecting Dave to ask that question, not Theodore. In other words, it meant that now, Theodore was now expecting them to have carried out a revenge last night. He silently gulped and hoped this worked. "I came down for a glass of milk last night, since I wasn't sleeping very well. The smell was getting to me, so I got rid of it all and emptied the trash," he shrugged slightly and then proceeded to face-plant himself into the arm of the couch. That was the last time that he had a midnight adventure for anyone, or at least, for a while- until whenever it would be the next time Alvin dragged him into his schemes instead of voluntarily joining them.

Theodore shook his head to himself in the kitchen. They were doing a very good job of meticulously covering up all of the evidence that could lead to _Dave_ suspecting something. But _he_ knew better than that. Perhaps they worked together and compromised something for a change, although they were trying real hard not to say anything. Then he began to suspect Fritzie was in on this too. After all, she did shake hands with Simon about joining the team.

"Hey, uhm, Fritzie?" Theodore called out from the kitchen, taking another bite of his apple before sticking the rest of it in his mouth as he wheeled his way on his crutches back into the living room

Fritzie didn't look up from looking around on her phone. "Yeah?" she responded bluntly.

Theodore stopped moving and put the apple back in his hand. "Since you have great hearing, did you hear anything weird last night?"

Fritzie knew instantly what Theodore wanted. For the gullible and innocent butterball he made himself out to be, he was actually quite savvy when it came to his brothers misadventures and schemes. However, even in a deep sleep, she sometimes couldn't hear anything at all. "No, I didn't. Why?"

Theodore looked downcast at the floor. It was either she was in on it, which she didn't seem like it, or that he was being too suspecting for his own good. He chose the latter. "Oh," Theodore said with a sulk, "never mind then." He put the rest of the apple back in his mouth, and wheeled his way over to the other armchair in the room so he could finish his apple.

Simon huffed a little when his brother didn't believe anything that they were saying. Of course, Theodore was right, but it showed how much he trusted his brothers. He muttered a few swears under his breath silently before shooting Alvin a 'should we tell him' look that he hoped Theodore didn't catch. Theodore could read Simon's looks just as well as Alvin could.

Alvin looked up when he heard Simon mutter something lightly under his breath and caught on with the look. He tried the best he could to make a 'not just yet' look as subtle as possible.

The middle brother raised an eyebrow, but simply nodded. He was content to follow Alvin's lead in the matter, for a change. He turned around and shot a look at Fritzie, who was still playing with her cell phone. "How are you feeling Fritzie, I'm sorry for snapping at you like that before. That was pretty rude of me earlier."

Theodore whimpered softly. He was absolutely confident that not only Alvin and Simon did something big last night, but Fritzie was a part of it. But now, instead of getting angry about it, he gave in to the fact that they didn't want to tell him about it just yet. Whatever they did, they are in major risk of a hardcore grounding. He took another bite of his apple before getting up again to throw the core of it away.

"Nah, don't pay mind to it. I know you're... tired," she said, stopping her gaze into the cell phone and observing Theodore's body language. If he was a dog, she could clearly see his ears drooping and his tail in between his legs. Her ears drooped in sympathy, then turned her attention back to Simon. "My head is still a little sore, it's as expected, but my headache is completely gone. The soreness should go away in a few days."

She put her cell phone in her pocket and in a rather desperate attempt to try to not give in to Theodore, she turned on the TV. Drat! The major disadvantage of watching TV early Sunday mornings was that a majority of the channels had either paid programming crap, where they would advertise the latest fad items and merchandise. Or, more so than that, plagued with Sunday morning bible preachings. Ick. She shuddered, then turned to the news channel, hoping to keep her knowledge on the world's going ons everly current.

**In recent news...** the TV blared out. A rather handsome middle aged man and a somewhat, but nowhere near model caliber, attractive middle aged woman sat in front of a desk cluttered with papers. The male voice continued to speak. **...a dog saved someones life. Ten year old Theodore Seville, better known as the sweet and impressionable drummer from the chipmunks fell out into the street in front of an oncoming car. Witnesses claim that a very unique looking terrier charged and tackled Theodore out of the way from a driver of a dark green sedan in an apparent hit and run. Inside sources say that they both are alright, but are injured, more information will become available as the event progresses over the course of the day.**

Fritzie approached the TV in shock. Alvin and Simon's, as well as Theodore's for that matter, eyes widened and jaws dropped in shock.

_**Yes Chad, that's kind of a scary thought, don't you think? I mean over the past couple of years, many people have grown to take a huge liking, and many kids are growing up to their music; and it would be a terrible shame to think what would have happened if Theodore was hit, wouldn't it?**_

**Yes Jen, and it's quite an amazing story, especially how a small dog could think up the reaction to do that. Most dogs would scurry off at the sight of a car-**

Fritzie punched the screen of the TV before turning it off. She growled at it angrily. More dog prejudices, wonderful. Don't people know how to stop with that crap!?

Theodore was the first one to break the momentary silence. "N-n-national news? Already!?" Theodore muttered in shock. He could already see the tsunami of reporters flooding their way over here to sneak up an interview in his mind. It made him want Dave to hurry home faster than ever.

"**What?!**" Fritzie barked out angrily. "Whoa, what do you mean '_national news_?' Don't tell me that they deflated dogs on national television!" The last thing that she wanted to be known for was 'just a dog with a lucky streak' on national television.

"We're celebrities! If the slightest thing important happens to us, they announce it _nationally_," Alvin said as a matter of factly. "We're bound to get interviewed about it at least once over the next couple of days."

Simon writhed in his own stupidity. That was the one thing that he completely forgotten about, reporters love to sink their teeth into these kinds of stories. And if the sabotage _did_ go according to plan... that could mean... oh no! What had they done!?

Simon instinctively jumped up and began heading for the living room curtains. "I hate to spoil the effects of such a lovely day outside, but perhaps we should shut the living room curtains. I don't think it would be advantageous of our situation if these _people_ were to solicit some footage about Theodore's current condition, do you?"

But before he could let anyone answer his question, he answered it himself. "Or, perhaps a little sooner," Simon sighed as he spied an enterprising reporter walk up their driveway. After closing the curtains, he took his glasses off and massaged his temples. "Alvin, don't you _**dare**_ answer that door," he said coldly. He wanted to know right here and now who was the 'inside source.' It wouldn't have been their doctor, because of strict doctor-to-patient confidentiality. There was always the possibility that Miss Miller accidentally told the wrong people, or Brittany was no longer in a catatonic state.

He just hoped that Dave would come back home before any more hopeful reporters would get the same idea.

Fritzie let out an audible growl at the thought of it. She wanted to go run out the front door so bad and let the guy know who's boss, but kept herself under control. The last thing she wanted to be known for was to be 'the dog who saved Theodore but chewed up the reporters.' The story would make a good laugh, but it would make things much worse in the long run. Instead, Fritzie jumped up and ran over, quickly locking the door just before the low-standing reporter could reach the door. She then jumped in front of Theodore in guard dog mode, and began to protect him, as if the man could get through a locked door.

Alvin stepped backwards at the tone of Simon's voice. He nodded and backed up a few more steps. "Do you think the neighbors said anything about this?" he said, taking note of Fritzie's actions.

Simon shrugged. "Could have been, I mean they mentioned something about witnesses describing the scene. I thought that they would have tried to help us out, but then again, all they did was stare at Fritzie and not do anything productive, so I shooed them away. Miss Miller might have accidentally mentioned this to the wrong people though..." Simon trailed off, replaying briefly the events that took place yesterday afternoon. He paused for a moment, not sure on how Alvin would take this thought, "or, well it does seem like something Brittany would do for even her own publicity..." he said. Occasionally, just occasionally, it would be nice to be a normal kid.

"Yes, that's right, it was a dark green sedan. I'm afraid that I can't tell you the model. However, Fritzie, the girl who rescued Theodore, managed to accidentally snag the picture of the man's license plate." Dave explained into his cell phone as he was driving home. He listened carefully to the other end. "Alright, thank you officer. Yes I'm sure it will be a little while before the boys venture out towards the street," he said, although he was very doubtful in Alvin or Simon's case. Another pause. "And yes, I will give Theodore your best wishes." Dave sighed as he hung up his cell phone and pulled into the driveway. That was one call down, and the police will be over shortly to get an official statement. He felt incredibly bad that her stay was turning out to be a nightmare. She seemed like such a nice girl and all.

But when Dave looked into the yard, he growled audibly to himself and began massaging his temples. There was a reporter out in front of the house already. "For crying out loud!" he muttered to himself, as he grabbed the bag containing Theodore's medicine, a bag of flour, and four candy bars as a treat to the gang.

Fritzie slightly eased off of her guard when she heard Dave pull up. "Dave's here," she grunted, not moving from where Theodore was standing. Theodore just stood there and stared a little bit.

"I honestly don't think that Brittany had anything to do with this." Alvin said, taking a look out the living room window through the curtains to see if it was true. Sure enough, Dave was getting out of the car with an irritated look on his face.

Alvin ran for the door and furiously unlocked it, and ran outside. He wanted to give the reporter a piece of his mind.

"Go away, we are not interested in buying anything, come back in three weeks and we will consider a deal. You owe me five bucks. If you are a reporter, also come back in three weeks before I go _absolutely crazy_ that this story is already on national news! Goodbye, I don't want to talk about this you jerk!" Alvin yelled out as if a dam burst in his vocal chords. He then turned his attention to Dave and slapped on a cheesy grin. "Hi, Dave."

Dave shook his head. "Good morning to you to Alvin, now get back inside," he said sternly, shutting his eyes and pointing a finger towards the door. Alvin obediently went back inside.

Dave gritted his teeth when the reporter sidled up to him, asking one million questions a minute. Apparently the man just completely ignored Alvin's shockingly different heartfelt outburst.

"Look, these are just children. Let them be, everyone is alive and that's all that matters. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to make my boys and their friend some breakfast." Dave said irritably as he slammed the door in the reporter's face.

The reporter left in a huff, rather disgusted that he couldn't get a story out of it, and pulled out from being parked in the street.

Dave then turned to observe what everyone was doing. Alvin was casually leaning on the edge of the wall between the stairwell and the kitchen with a grin, Simon was standing near the living room curtains, and Theodore was leaning on his crutches in the living room, with Fritzie 'guarding' him. He tilted his head just slightly. "Everyone's awake now I see?"

"Yep..." Simon said with a dull tone. He didn't know what to talk about really.

"Hey Dave, aren't you at least glad that I told the reporter to go away, instead of giving in just for publicity?" Alvin said smoothly, leaning on the corner of the wall with his arms crossed. Now, he felt like he had a good nights sleep instead of the meager three hours of sleep that he actually got.

Dave sighed. "Yes, Alvin. I'm proud that for the first time in your life, you told a reporter to go away. You could have, however, done it a little more tastefully."

Alvin grinned. "I'm kind of new to it, sorry."

Dave couldn't help but grin back. He looked into the living room after shooting Alvin a grin.

Fritzie remained in guard mode for another brief moment before easing up and flashing a grin of her own. "Hehe, don't mind me. I'm just playing watchdog," she chuckled, taking note of Dave's cleverly hidden annoyed look. "Oh, and Tal hasn't called yet, and you haven't missed anything except for that intruder-" Fritzie stopped for a second, trying to rewrite the script of her thoughts, "I mean the reporter. I'ma call him an intruder because he apparently ain't welcome 'round here."

Theodore, now free to move around, approached Dave. "Hi Dave. Did you know we made national news already? I wonder how that happened already..." he said, wheeling his way over to see what was in the plastic bag. His eyes lit up when he saw the candy bars in the bag. "Ooo, candy bars!" he said cheerfully. They were all snickers bars. He tossed one to Alvin, Simon, and Fritzie, before beginning to gnaw on his own.

Alvin and Simon caught theirs and began attacking the candy with a vengeance. They knew that there wasn't much time before they were going to be grounded to the floor.

"Hello Theodore," Dave said, chucking when Theodore discovered the candy bars. "I take it you guys like your surprise."

"Sure do," Simon said, attacking the bar almost unnaturally. "Fanks," he said with his mouth full. Alvin grunted a thanks that sounded very similar to Simon's. Theodore blinked.

"Oh, and that's alright Fritzie, thank you for looking after my boys." Dave said to Fritzie as she just put the candy bar in her pocket. She was a guest, Dave didn't have the right to take her chocolate even if they got caught, which was imminent, very imminent. She began to hear things. "If you don't mind Fritzie, what's Tal's number? I'll phone him before we have breakfast if that's alright with everyone."

The boys nodded, and Fritzie dug her cell phone out of her pocket. She began searching for my number, when she dropped her cell phone and tensed up rapidly. She began to hear the works of a grinding engine on the next block. She ignored what Dave said and tried to hear to see if it could be their 'magical work.'

Everyone in the room became alarmed. Fritzie impulsively left the phone on the floor, and went to the living room window. She looked outside to see the car in question weakly round the corner, the engine sounding obviously sluggish in her ears.

Her blood flash-boiled, and she was out that door before even she knew what she was doing.

* * *


	22. Chapter 21: Solitaire Unraveling

**Back from my little 'vacation' if you will from my friend's house. Firstly, I am completely unimpressed with the reviews I got. Only one in two days? That's even worse than getting four reviews for three chapters. Come on, I should have gotten at least two or something. /**

**However, I'm not going to let it bother me. My life has been shaping up over the past few days, which means I'm in a better and forgiving mood, and not so much rant. I still would appreciate feedback.**

**Which brings me to my next point. I am kind of at a crossroad on what to do in terms of a sequel. I have an idea that will either branch out into one big sequel, a shorter written but longer played out series of installments, or a big sequel with random little blurbs in the in between time. Basically, what I am leaning towards is the big sequel with the random comedic fillers in between, but I would love to know your opinions, so I have made a poll on my user profile. Please vote, this is something I would need reader's feedback instead of just personal opinion. And it's a blind poll, so the only one who will see the results, is me. Go with what you feel!**

**There is a song in this chapter, however, unlike the last four songs, everyone (including myself when I did the story) will have to read it without the music, because there's no way you could read all the actions in time for the song. If you don't think you will remember it, read it twice.**

**If anyone is up to it, I will release Chapters 6 and Chapter 21 in another story document as "Bonus Scenes." Basically, Chapter 6 and this chapter have song names as their titles. This chapter happens to be a play on the song "Solitaire Unraveling" by the band Mushroomhead. If anyone is interested, I will work out a way to make those two songs fit in with the chapter title. May make the story run slightly different, but thats why they are bonus scenes. Leave me a review if you are interested.**

**Anyways, enough with the long authors note. Cheers, enjoy Chapter 21.**

-Narf

**(PS- Reviews please!)**

**--Chapter 21: Solitaire Unraveling--**

Back at the sabotaged house, the man rolled over and comfortably tried to 'get out of bed.' When he tried to swing his legs over the side of the bed, he panicked slightly when he found out that it wasn't working. Coming to his senses, he realized that he was so wasted and high, that he simply passed out on the floor before he even made it to bed.

When he got up, he still felt drunk. Had he drank so much last night that he's still drunk now? He felt absolutely horrible, and had a massive hangover even though the alcohol hadn't wore off yet. He began to wonder why he got so wasted and stoned last night in the first place.

His head was swimming, but he managed to remember some of it. He ran some kid and a dog off the road. They were safely on the other side, and he knew better than to drive off because it's illegal, but he acted on impulse and instead sped off, not knowing how to cope with it. I mean after all, he didn't hit them. What could be so bad if he didn't actually hit them?

He got up to go check to see if the news leaked out about it already in the newspaper. Perhaps yesterday was all just a fluke and nothing more, perhaps in fact, he was still dreaming.

He staggered uncomfortably into the living room, where he was greeted by the most horrible stench he ever smelled. It was so sobering in fact, that he realized that not only was he in bad shape, but almost seemed as if somebody was out to get him. He stormed angrily out the front door, in realization that somebody would be so inconsiderate as to trash his front lawn.

He violently swung the door open. After living in the crummy house for two months, he'd think that the door was on there good and solid after all of the anger fits that he would have almost weekly. This time though, to his surprise, the door flew clean off of it hinges and went sailing onto the front lawn. He was a bit surprised at it, and he took two steps in curiosity to see how the hell he managed to do that?

**Slip and wham!**

Alvin would probably have gone into a total laughing fit if he was watching. In the man's drunken and oblivious state, he took two steps and stepped right on the banana peel, doing a traditional cartoon slip and fell hard on the doorstep, cracking the back of his head on the bottom of the door frame.

After a few moments of lying on the doorstep in a deeper headache than he started off with, he furiously snatched the newspaper, which was left haphazardly on the front lawn instead of in the man's newspaper box. Inside his mind, he was going to let the paperboy have it for doing this crap to him, but little did he actually know, the real Sunday newspaper was still sitting in his newspaper box.

When he got into the kitchen, ignoring the smell of whatever it was that he was smelling before, he irritably pulled the incredibly _light_ Sunday paper out of the plastic and looked at it distastefully on the kitchen table. It was only the 'Weekend' section, and the classifieds. Just as he was about to snarl, he noticed the orange slip of construction paper in it, face down. He picked it up, turned it over, and read it.

_Dear Valued Customer,_

_We regret to inform you that we are fed up with you behind behind with your newspaper payments, so as a final warning, we are sending you the odds and ends of last week's Sunday paper as a coercing for you to pay your bill. Once payment is received, we will gladly return you to full service. Otherwise, we will promptly cancel your subscription_

_If you truly feel that this has been given to you wrongfully, please come to our office and we will make arrangements to fix our unapparent mistake. You know where we are._

_Thank you for your time,  
__**-Los Angeles Times.**_

Simon got a good laugh out of typing the message out. It may not have exactly been truly professional, but he didn't want to use the man's real name, or forge a signature. That would have been a dumb idea. Simon would probably have gotten a good laugh though, albeit a bit scared, when the man, now thoroughly enraged- threw the kitchen table across the room and into the wall.

**"Canceled?!"** he screamed out. Now thoroughly in a blinding rage, as Alvin wanted him to be, he threw one of his couches across the living room on his way out the cleanly thrown off front door and promptly entered the his car to give the paper company a piece of his mind.

He sat comfortably immediately and slammed the door shut. He started up the car, ignoring the engine light that was already blinking, and pulled off in almost an instant.

He pulled out and blindly began driving much faster than the area's speed limit, taking his favorite way down towards the newspaper office, unknowingly meaning that he would result in passing the block where he ran the kid and the dog off the road the afternoon before. He didn't care, he was out for blood.

He went to brake as he turned the first corner, the brake petal was stuck! It wouldn't work. He violently turned the corner, and the next proceeding corner, unable to slow down. It was a scary feeling.

What Simon would probably not have guessed was that the violent turning mixed the contents of the gasoline and the sugar at a much rapid pace. And before the man was on their road, the car's engine sputtered violently, and the car began to stall.

Now that the car was going too slow near where the incident occured the day before, he attempted to floor it instead, in a desperate attempt to get out of the situation he was in. However, all flooring it did was cut the engine abruptly, and the car rolled to a stop, two houses down the road from the Seville's residence.

Just as the car stalled, Fritzie bolted out the door and ran at lightning speed, clearing a fence with ease as she ran blindly in a rage towards the hapless and trapped culprit. In the part of her that was still sane, she could hear the sirens blaring from not all that far away from the neighborhood, and came to the ultimate conclusion impulsively that if she was going to enact her form of revenge, it was going to have to be now.

The man instantly recognized the dog that was in the process of at him. It was the very same dog he ran off the road the night before. He instinctively closed his window before sitting tight, and stupidly putting his hands on the cushion of his seat. He took a breath.

As she rested her eyes on the target, which was now in front of her, she took one final look at the front left rim. Now seeing it at night was nothing like seeing it in daylight, and she recognized the light tan hair from behind her ears, still on the front rim. As long as it was still there, she could still give the guy what he had coming.

Fritzie's glare on the car was enough to catch paper on fire, and all of her hairs, just like last night, stood on end like needles. The air was so tense around her, that you couldn't even break it with a sledgehammer if you really wanted to. She. Was. Pissed. And she noticed the man's window was now closed.

The man looked sheepishly out the driver's window. There, he saw the angriest little dog that you ever met. Good thing that windows were made of tempered glass, right?

Fritzie showed her gleaming white teeth in a snarl, then charged full speed at the man's window. In mid air, she spun around and contacted the window with her right foot- a roundhouse kick. Probably a stupid thing to do with a tempered glass window, you could really hurt yourself bouncing off of it, but Fritzie really didn't care. If she couldn't do much damage, at least give the guy a good scare for his money, and vent her frustration.

Much to even her own surprise, she _shattered_ the driver seat's window on the very first try, showering glass all over the car, and all over the street. The sound of shattered glass could be heard down the street.

She bounced off the window upon impact, and landed lightly and gracefully on her feet. Now with the guy absolutely startled in fear, she made her move to simply just terrify the guy even more than he already was. She was in control now.

If there wasn't glass all over the street, she might have stomped her way over if she really wanted to, but looking more evil and controlled if she didn't, she instead lightly walked over, but not lessening the furious look on her face, or the glare that could burn through paper.

"T-t-this isn't right!" the man pleaded. "This ain't cool, how- what?" he said, showing obvious terror as Fritzie approached him again. When Fritzie made it right to the door, she grabbed the man right at the neck firmly and forcefully, but not enough to cause him to have trouble breathing. She stared right into the man's eyes. Despite the fiery look, they were as cold as ice. He instinctively tried to move his arms to defend himself, but his hands were now glued to the seat and set. He had no way to defend himself.

Fritzie let an evil and cold grin grace her face. The man involuntarily shuddered. With a chillingly dark and cold voice, she said, "You're not going _anywhere_. Move, and you're going to be so much more miserable than you already are, buddy."

Their eyes locked. The man tried to pull his eyes away, but every time he did, his eyes would end up following right back to in Fritzie's cold and menacing eyes. Fritzie laughed inside her mind. 'Good and trapped, and just the way I like it. Revenge is fulfilled, but I'm not going to let him go _just_ yet.'

The man whimpered. Fritzie narrowed her eyes even more. She began to burn an image into the man's mind, a song if you will.

* * *

**KEY SONG: MAROON 5 - "HARDER TO BREATHE"**

-Fritzie-  
_How dare you say that my behavior is unacceptable,  
__So condescending, unnecessarily critical.  
__I have the tendency of getting very physical,  
__So watch your step 'cause if I do you'll need a miracle._

Fritzie begins singing to the man in the car. At first, it's nothing very special, shes sitting there singing it to him while she has him by the throat.

-Fritzie-  
_You drain me dry and make me wonder why I'm even here,_

She let go of the man's neck, and jumps back down onto the pavement.

-Fritzie-  
_The double vision I was seeing is finally clear._

She then pointed at her temples. She did end up getting double vision from both knockouts, and she blamed him for both, because the first one made the second one possible.

-Fritzie-  
_You want to stay but you know very well I want you gone,_

She pointed at the man accusingly. Obviously, the man was forced to stay where he was, and wanting him gone meant something else, _prison_.

-Fritzie-  
_Not fit to fucking tread the ground that I am walking on!_

She crouched down and narrowed her eyes, pointing down at the pavement below her. The surrounding scenery went white, and Fritzie stood before him, now with a microphone, and the chipmunks on their respected instruments, Alvin on the guitar, Simon on Bass, and Theodore, with no broken leg, on the drums.

-Fritzie (Alvin and Simon)-  
_When it gets cold outside and you got nobody to love. (Oh-o-o-oh)_

Fritzie began singing, suddenly making the 'room' bitterly cold. The man couldn't help, who was now standing up, but shiver uncontrollably.

-Fritzie (Theodore)-  
_You'll understand what I mean when I say there's no way we're gonna give up. (Yeah, yeah, yeah)_

Fritzie fixed a glare on the man, and it was the truth, she wasn't going to give up on it, and neither were Alvin and Simon last night. When Theodore sang the backup vocals, he shot a smirk at the guy.

-Fritzie (Alvin and Simon)-  
_And like a little girl cries in the face of a monster that lives in her dreams... (Oh-o-o-oh)_

Fritzie then dramatically softened, and a picture showed behind the band of Fritzie, cowering in a corner, with a shadowy man standing towering over her. The towering figure was obscure of detail, but apparently obvious.

-All-  
_'Is there anyone out there, cause it's getting harder and harder to breathe...'_

The background then we't back to white as Alvin, Simon and Theodore sang quietly in the background. Fritzie sarcastically and dramatically sang the lyrics more prominently, and pretended to marquee the words as she sang them.

-Fritzie-  
_Is there anyone out there- cause it's getting harder and harder to breathe!_

Fritzie sang this now with more of a fury and vengeance, clenching her free fist and fixing a glare at the guy.

-Fritzie-  
_What you are doing is screwing things up inside my head,_

Fritzie softened the glare. She looked up at the 'ceiling' or 'sky' if you will and rolled her eyes around, and doing the insane finger roll with her free hand to the side of her head

-Fritzie-  
_You should know better you never listened to a word I said._

Fritzie stopped and instead opened her arms, as if she was trying to explain something obvious. Perhaps, she didn't say anything to him at all except for the single cold line before- but hey, who's counting?

-Fritzie-  
_'Clutching your pillow and writhing in a naked sweat...'_

Fritzie sarcastically began clutching something and darted her eyes around, like waking up out of a nightmare.

-Fritzie_-  
Hoping somebody someday will do ya' in like I did!_

Snapping out of the sarcasm, she then clenched a fist and yelled at the man in aggravation.

-Fritzie (Alvin and Simon)-  
_When it gets cold outside and you got nobody to love. (Oh-o-o-oh)_

Fritzie unleashed another cold glare at the man, who again, shivered uncontrollably. He began looking around for something a little more warming, even though he seemed to be frozen in place.

-Fritzie (Theodore)-  
_You'll understand what I mean when I say there's no way we're gonna give up. (Yeah, yeah, yeah)_

Fritzie let the boys sing a little louder this time around, and she jerked her head backwards signaling that the 'we' meant them too.

-Fritzie (Alvin and Simon)-  
_And like a little girl cries in the face of a monster that lives in her dreams... (Oh-o-o-oh)_

The resounding picture from the first time Fritzie said this became more prominent, but it was still too hard to make out detail. The Fritzie in the background however, did start crying instead of just cowering in fear.

-All-  
_'Is there anyone out there, cause it's getting harder and harder to breathe...' (Oh-o-o-oh)_

Fritzie rolled her eyes up in sarcasm, making little quotation marks as she walked a few steps forward as the background went white again.

-Fritzie-  
_Is there anyone out there- cause it's getting harder and harder to breathe!_

Fritzie stepped forward dangerously close to the ever more softening figure before her, almost yelling the words at him as she did so.

Alvin and Simon began furiously jamming to the solo, Alvin making vigorous, almost breathing noises as he did so. While that was happening, the man began to shrink, shrink down to only a few inches high. The rest of them tower over him, more importantly, Fritzie was.

-Fritzie-  
_Does it kill, does it burn?  
Is it painful to learn?  
That it's me, that has all the control!_

Fritzie stooped down and sand more directly to the guy, putting both of her hands to her sides. She grinned furiously while singing about her having control, which back in reality, she does.

-Fritzie-  
_Does it thrill, does it sting?  
When you feel what I bring,  
And you wish that you had me to hold? (Whoooaaaa)_

She then pretended to be shocked, then a wounded expression as she clutched the back of her head. After questioning though, she menacingly faked grabbing the guy, and finally held herself and began looking more worried and actually tried to look adorable. As she was singing hold, she jumped backwards a few steps as the man returned relatively quickly to his normal size.

-Fritzie/Alvin (Simon)-  
_When it gets cold outside and you got nobody to love. (Oh-o-o-oh)_

Alvin then stepped forward as a microphone stand magically appeared in front of him, and Fritzie and him both began singing. A snowdrift fell to the floor right on top of the guy as he stood still. He winced at how cold it was. The resounding white background that plagued much of the song was now a more slate gray with bars and various other dungeon like props. If anything it looked more like a... prison cell.

-Fritzie/Alvin (Theodore)-  
_You'll understand what I mean when I say there's no way we're gonna give up. (Yeah, yeah, yeah)_

Fritzie and Alvin both shouted and pointed at themselves, then pointed at the corner of the 'room' that manifested.

-Fritzie/Alvin (Simon)-  
_And like a little girl cries in the face of a monster that lives in her dreams... (Oh-o-o-oh)_

Similar looking wire-fox terrier was sitting, crying fearfully in the corner, looking directly at him. He looked back over at Fritzie, and Fritzie lowered his head, fixing a glare that meant, 'You are the monster.'

-All (Alvin and Simon)-  
_Is there anyone out there, cause it's getting harder and harder to br-he-heathe! (Oh-o-o-oh)_

Now fully aware what the whole thing meant, Fritzie slumped down onto her knees and emotionally sang out the lyrics, drawing out the word 'breathe.'

-All-  
_'Is there anyone out there, cause it's getting harder and harder to breathe...'_

Figured began to disappear in a rapid pace. The chipmunks, one by one, vanished into thin air, the background faded, and reality began to take it's shape once again.

_"Is there anyone out there- cause it's getting harder and harder to breathe."_ Fritzie said audibly but quietly, now back to reality with her hand around the man's throat.

The man's eye twitched. He saw what Fritzie etched into his mind, and the fact that he sang the last line made him feel weak and powerless. Not much more than a moment passed though, when the song got etched into both of their minds. So Fritzie instead decided to scare the guy even more half to death. She coldly grinned at her overwhelming power. She began to speak.

"You know something, you granted yourself a nice little reward for nearly hitting Theodore. You got yourself into a mess that you can't get yourself out of, no matter how hard you try to escape it. It's a hauntingly cold reality. Don't you just wish, just wish slightly, that you would have checked on us to see if we were okay?" Fritzie said snidely, flashing her gumbs. "Everyone would probably have forgiven you real easily. After all, he accidentally fell into the street, its not like you could have avoided it."

Her tone began to harshen however. "However, the damn nerve to just drive off like that, and the fact that you **hit** me, leaves the rest of your lifetime full of hell and hauntings, chilling reminders of this moment. You will be guilty, and weak, to the horrors that you inflicted on yourself."

Fritzie's voice began to soften again, but her face remained just as evil. "Of course, a lifetime of hell sounds just pleasantly cozy though compared to what I can do to you right here and right now," she said, with a cheerful, but the most evil twinge that anyone could ever hear. If she really wanted to, she could rip the man's face off right now, and she had the anger to do that, but just scaring the guy mindless was just as fun, if not more fun, than the pain idea.

Satisfied that the police were now cruising down the block, she let go of the man's throat and walked proudly to the sidewalk on the other side of the road, with the neighbors starting to flood out of their houses.

"Lesson learned," he muttered to himself. Fritzie heard it, and knew that not only she was off the hook because of his newfound guilt, but also, that Simon and Alvin wouldn't be blamed for the sabotage.

She, however, had a new problem to deal with. Dave. He stopped a couple of steps away from Fritzie. She kept her proud composure, and in essence, proud that she didn't kill the guy. After all, the man didn't kill anyone else. In the back of her mind though, she began cowering at what Dave would react to _this_.

* * *

Dave shot a look at where Fritzie was running off to, then shot a death glare at Simon and Alvin. "What have you three done?" he said, as he began massaging his temples. Alvin cringed, and Simon cowered slightly too. "What did you three do last night?" Dave said angrily. He never would have thought that they would be this much trouble when he adopted them as babies.

"We sought to avenge our younger brother," Simon said nervously, trying to offer a way of explaining it.

Dave looked between the two boys. "Who's idea was it?" He felt as if he already knew that was Alvin. It was always Alvin after all. Everyone inside flinched when they heard glass shattering down the street.

Alvin cringed a little bit. He could already guess that Simon was going to instinctively pit Alvin solo for this.

"Both of ours, Dave," Simon said quietly. He was responsible for much of it after all, he willingly did this.

"Simon!" Dave said with an exasperated tone. "I thought that _you_ would have known better than that!"

Simon looked sheepishly at his feet. "We did it for Theodore..." he said weakly. He didn't quite know how to explain it any clearer than that.

"Can you blame us Dave?" Alvin yelled as he ran out the door to examine some of the result of his and Simon's fruits of labor. However with Fritzie holding the man by the throat and the fiery tension in the air, he walked back into the house uncomfortably. "Besides, we made you and the police's job easier."

Dave sighed and massaged his temples again. "Not completely Alvin, but it still means that you shouldn't have done it. I directly told you boys _not_ to take matters into your own hands."

Theodore looked at his feet. So they really did plan out a sabotage and a revenge.

Alvin walked over to Theodore and gave him a genuine hug. "Sorry about not saying anything before, we knew that you were going to find out eventually," he said weakly. "All three of us, Fritzie too, couldn't bear to leave this one alone. It was worth it, you mean too much to us to just let this one go without a little bit of flare."

Theodore leaned on his crutches and warmly hugged Alvin back. "I know Dave doesn't like this at all, but I kind of guessed you guys would do something like this after all. I can't wait to hear what you guys did and how you managed to pull it off." Theodore began giggling, then stopped and his eyes widened when Dave focused his glare on him.

Dave was a bit disappointed that Theodore was condoning what his brothers did last night, but he couldn't actually get mad at Theodore. It was just his personality. Dave fished another death glare at Alvin and Simon. He knew he had to punish them somehow, and with Fritzie's involvement now in the whole thing, he'd have to really talk to me about the whole thing when he called me. "You're both grounded for at least the rest of the month. I told you that this was a matter only for the police and you both disobeyed me."

Simon began to complain a little bit, needless to say he shouldn't have, but it just kind of blurted out. "But Dave, you promised me last week you would take me to the new exhibit at the-"

Dave just shook his head. "I want you both to go back to your room and stay there. I'm going to go get Fritzie, I've got a fair idea on where she might be." His gaze softened when he looked at Theodore. "Will you be alright until I come back?"

Despite not being grounded, having the other two get grounded for trying to do something for him made _him_ feel guilty about it. He sulked as he went for the nearest armchair and sat down.

"I know that this isn't going to sound right to you, but I wont _feel_ alright unless they aren't grounded for it," Theodore said shyly, but firm. He felt brave for voicing his opinion on this, because normally he would hold silent and let the unloading just happen. It felt horrible for them to get grounded, especially while they had a guest over, because they did something noble for him. A bit unorthodox maybe, but noble none the less.

He began finding the next bit of words to say. "I mean, think about it Dave. What would you have done if you were in their shoes? I know you wanted to do something too in my defense too." When Dave gave Theodore a slight skeptical look, as if not grounding them sounded like the dumbest idea in the world. Theodore knew pretty well that Dave was pretty hard to cave when it came to matters like this. It would feel pretty weird though, to be the only one in the house that _wasn't_ grounded. Finally, with a sigh, he got the courage to say one final thing.

"Or, if you are not going to be lenient on them at all," he said, lightly kicking the air with his right foot, "ground me too."

Simon's and Alvin's eyes twitched at Theodore's requests. Naturally, it would be Alvin trying to bail everyone out, but Theodore doing this...

"Oh, Theodore..." Dave crouched in front of Theodore as he was looking down at this lap, "if something like that would have happened when I was your age, I would have done the same thing as well. But I would have known that every action has consequences. Sometimes, like with yesterday though, you need to do things the proper, _legal_ way."

Theodore shot a look at Dave before looking at his lap again. Dave ruffled his hair fringe.

"Why would I ground you Theodore? You weren't involved with this little stunt so it wouldn't be fair for you."

Theodore shook his head no. He was standing firm on what he believed in. "Ground me." Theodore said firmly. Dave's eye twitched. He didn't think that Theodore felt that strongly about this. He sighed.

"What about I go find Fritzie and then once the police matters are taken care of, and I'll have a little talk with them. Find something different since we have a guest this week. That sound better, Theodore?"

Theodore face palmed gently. "Not really," Theodore said dryly, sounding a little more upset. The stress was starting to get to him. It was almost as if he was trying to find a reason _to_ get grounded for. Not wanting to keep this up any longer though, after all, Fritzie was still outside, and the sirens were now blaring out in front of the house. "Go get Fritzie and clear things up with the police. Don't let me distract you any longer."

Simon and Alvin jogged out the door to observe what was going on outside. Dave didn't try to stop them, and instead rubbed his temples again. At this rate, he was going to be serving lunch instead of breakfast, despite that it was still nine in the morning. "Want to come outside as well, Theodore?"

Theodore got up and headed for the doorway. He let Dave pass, then just stood in the doorway. He noticed the car that was stopped two houses down, and he could feel Fritzie's now dissipating anger. He shuddered at it, but as the rage started to wear off, it became a little more comfortable, but Theodore didn't feel comfortable going outside anyways. He was a little shy about his injury, especially with the reporter trying to stalk them just as Dave got home.

Alvin and Simon walked back closer to the house, so that he could get a few words in with Theodore without forcing him to come outside.

"Do you think that Dave would make an exception for once in our lives? I mean, he even said it himself that he would do what we would have done! That's no grounds for punishment." Alvin said smugly. Simon shook his head no.

"Yeah, I know, but I think that we still somewhat deserve this, I mean, we did disobey him." Simon said, hanging his head.

Alvin was so tempted to mutter killjoy, but stopped himself, and instead took a deep breath and watched.


	23. Chapter 22: Investigational Report

**Alright, I have several things with this authors note.**

**First. For those who have read Chapter 21, I apologize, I forgot the song link for the last chapter. So for those who haven't gone back to reread the song bit, I advise to do that to make it 'sound' a little better.**

**Secondly, what's with the reviews? Last Chapter I only had one review again, not counting my own review. I know at least nine or ten people have read the last chapter, because I have 22 hits for the last chapter. The reviews actually do mean alot to me, because it tells me that people are reading and giving at least some sort of feedback. Chapter 20 also only got one review, and I don't like it. So I will release Chapter 23 when I get a few more reviews than just one a chapter at this point.**

**Thirdly, I have a poll on my authors profile that's sequel related. I need YOUR opinion. Should I do a big sequel, a mini-series, or even both? If you really like the story, I would love to see what my 'fans' per say would like to see happen in terms of a sequel. I have my own personal opinion on what I want to do, but if I get more votes towards a different thing, I will give it a try.**

**Finally, I would love to give one of my friends a special thanks for allowing me to use him as a cameo character. (Officer Cable.) Check him out sometime, and his fanfics on DeviantART. His name is M1Abrams on DeviantART. Of course, you could follow the link to my DeviantART profile through my authors profile and he's on my friends icon list.**

**Anyways, reviews, reviews, reviews! Even if it's just a one word thing, it doesnt matter. As long as I know people are reading it. (Enjoy the chapter.)**

-Narf

**--Chapter 22: Investigational Report--**

Dave stopped a couple of steps away from Fritzie. He took notice of the glass glittering on the street and all over the man in the car, and felt just slightly afraid of her. She seemed so nice and innocent, now though... she seemed pretty scary. He spoke, careful not to approach her.

"Fritzie," he started, Fritzie looked over and her ears dropped, "calm down. This is something for the police to deal with, alright?" Dave looked around and noticed two cars that finished pulling in and settled a bit down the street. He took a look at the driver of the sedan. He was trying to get out, but wasn't getting anywhere fast, and was absolutely terrified.

"What _did_ you three _do_ last ni-" he began to say, then thought for a second. "Actually... I don't think I want to know..."

Fritzie looked warmly at Dave. She could only guess that Dave was stunned by Fritzie's sudden impulse, and was probably scared of what she could do to him- like that she was sinister and wicked in disguise. She really didn't have a bad personality, she really didn't. She blamed the car driver for wrenching out the seldom used evil side of her. Naturally, she would be irked by human behavior, but she was complacent enough to suppress any violent urges.

"I'm calm _now_," she said, pining at the man glued in the car, "all I needed to do was terrify the living daylights out of the man responsible, then let the police take over. Although, I think breaking the drivers window did the trick..." Fritzie said in thought, putting a finger to her lip wondering whether or not the impulse overdid it. Too late for that now.

"You mean _you_ did that?" Dave said in a gasp. Fritzie grinned sheepishly.

"Well... more like anger and impulse did that..." Fritzie said in defense. "Normally I can suppress things like that, but you know how I felt this morning when I discovered the bald spot. I lost control of myself."

Dave put his hand on Fritzie's shoulder, in a rather shaky attempt of leading her away from the terrified man. How was he going to explain this to them? Fritzie obliged to the leading. She did feel a little guilty for overdoing it, but only slightly. It had done the trick.

"When the police finish their investigation, we are going to have a talk about what happened last night. And then, I'm going to talk to Tal about this."

Fritzie winced slightly at the comment. Having me hear about this was a double edge sword. "Oh, yeah. Tal... right."

She took one look back at the guy in the car. He was resting easily against the seat, with the most guilty look on his face. Fritzie laughed to herself on how well he managed to glue himself into the seat. She couldn't imagine what could have happened to her if he didn't glue his hands to the seat.

Fritzie then shot a look at Dave, a rather guilty grin. She scratched the back of her head and blushed. "By the way, your super glue rocks!" She said with a guilty giggle. Dave's eyes narrowed in confusion.

'So that's why Fritzie successfully terrified the man half to death. He sat in super glue and then must have glued his hands to the seat.' Dave thought to himself. Although Dave was still quite edgy about what happened, he couldn't help but think, 'Nice touch.'

When Dave and Fritzie made it back to their front lawn, the boys had mixed reactions. Alvin flashed a scared look before making a horrid attempt to covering it up.

Simon smirked a little bit. He wasn't much of the type for violence, and was usually more responsible about critical reactions such as that, but he was content that Fritzie got her revenge, just as he and Alvin did the night before.

Theodore's look was more of a sad look though. He hoped that he didn't hurt the guy too badly. Even if the man was inconsiderate enough to not check on their well being, Theodore had too much compassion for his own good. Suitably enough though, he was happy that Fritzie was a bit happier. After all, she was grazed.

"Well?" Simon asked, intrigued with what happened.

"I feel adequate now," she said with a thumbs up, but she quickly retrieved it and her content face turned into more of more scared grin. "I just hope that we ain't punished too badly," she said as Dave slightly forcefully led her back into the house. Dave beckoned for the rest of them to follow him in.

When everyone was inside, Dave was careful to close the door. "Alvin, Simon, Fritzie, front and center!"

Everyone proceeded to stand out in front of Dave, even Theodore. Dave shook his head.

"Theodore, I'm not trying to make it sound like I'm mad at you, I wasn't referring to you on this. Therefore, don't stand in front of me. This is directed at the three troublemakers." Dave said almost coldly. Theodore twitched his eye and stood off to the side.

"You three better stay right here unless you are called out by me. What you did last night by the looks of it, and what you did in particular just now Fritzie, was _illegal_. Sabotaging a car? Breaking a car window and attacking the occupant?"

The three of them sulked, Fritzie the most in particular. Dave continued on with his lecture.

"I have no idea if that's just what you did, and knowing how you plan things out Alvin, there is probably a whole lot more to it that I'm about to find out. After I have a nice little chat with the authorities, we are going to have a nice long talk about what you three did last night," he said while shaking his head and throwing his hands in his face in stress, "and acceptable behavior in these situations."

"Yessir." Alvin, Simon and Fritzie said in unison.

"We could have pressed charges without any opposition, but with this, the man could just as well press equally harsh charges back. I'm just about confident that you three found the right guy." he said sternly, then looking right at Fritzie. She flinched. "However, I still need the picture that was taken as evidence. Fritzie, I'm going to need your cell phone to show to the police."

Fritzie began shaking a little bit, fumbling in her pockets and pulling out her cell phone. She didn't attempt to call up the picture, because she could very well accidentally delete it, and instead gave it to Dave.

"I will be right back. Do not leave the living room." Dave said sternly, before approaching the police and apologizing for the kids' actions.

Dave approached a young and diligent looking officer. He knew him all too well. "Hello, Officer Cable," he said glumly. Officer Cable was usually quite friendly and easy to talk to, but he was also a man of his job. Dave could only just dread what he was about to hear.

"You sound like an emotional train wreck Dave, more than usual. However it's perfectly understandable considering both the situations your kids and their friend seem to have gotten themselves involved in," he said in a nice but serious tone. Dave's face dropped.

"Okay, let me have it on the bad, might as well get it over with," Dave said with a sigh.

"Well, apparently your boys were involved with a sabotage. Both to the gentleman's house, and his car. The damages to the house were minimal. The door flew off it's hinges, however that is something that would only cost about fifty cents to fix."

Dave nodded and waited for a continuation.

"However, the apparent damage to the car aside from the broken window their little 'friend' inflicted just before, was sugar in the gas tank. A common little trick that causes the engine to clog."

Dave's face dropped even more. The damages to the man's car would probably be astounding, and if Dave had any hope of suing the man for damages against Theodore, it would be canceled out by the damages done to the car.

"And finally, as you probably realize, their friend, who strangely enough is a humanoid dog, assaulted the man by holding him by the throat until I arrived on the scene. The man himself received no injuries from the attack, even being covered with broken glass and glued snugly into his seat, but is quite emotionally shaken about the whole ordeal.

Dave felt like bashing his head into a brick wall. What had his boys done? And what on earth was Fritzie thinking!? He groaned and awaited the final verdict.

"Anyways, what you will be relieved to hear is that the man does not wish to press any charges at all for the damages inflicted by presumably Alvin and Simon, as well as their friend."

Dave's face went from dread to shock. "He is not going to press charges?" he asked in disbelief.

"Nope, and in fact, he insists on paying for the damages that he may have caused to your son, and their apparent friend. That little dog must have had a way with words or something."

Dave looked back at the house, not believing his ears. He lightly pinched himself to make sure that he was actually hearing this, and not in the middle of some odd nightmare.

"What your kids did was totally illegal, in many factions. However, the motivation spurred behind it the man totally understood, and in fact insisted that no charges would be placed against you, your kids, or the dog." Officer Cable said with a grin.

Dave blinked dumbly. He wasn't sure if the question would help him at all, but he decided to ask anyways. "Why though?"

The officer laughed whole-heartedly. "The man felt irresponsible for speeding off like that instead of checking on the victims- whether they were hit or not. From what he told me, the _dog_ said that if he would have pulled over to check on them, even if she was hit in which she claims to be, they _both_ would have forgiven him and this whole mess would have been avoided."

Dave sighed, somewhat in relief, but somewhat still in agony. "Theodore would have forgiven him even through all of this. He said himself that he fell out into the street. It's not like the man could have easily avoided the collision. Theodore has too big of a heart though, he probably would understand the man's irresponsible fear of coping with the situation. Fritzie though, I don't know. She won a contest to come visit here for a week, so I really don't know too much about her. She seemed very nice though, a little protective, but very nice."

The officer simply nodded, and looked on the cell phone for the picture Fritzie accidentally took. In the picture was a solid shot of the man's car color and license plate, and it even showed Fritzie's feet facing away from the camera. Also in the shot was a clear shot of Dave's house, not at the angle of where the green sedan was stalled to a stop now. Considering that the picture was undeniable evidence, he had to take it in. He was a little skeptical though about how she in fact managed to take the picture.

"I understand. Anyways, I would like to talk to Theodore and Fritzie in questioning about the initial hit and run. I am not going to bother questioning Simon or Alvin, since the charges were dropped, and I can understand the motivation behind it. How they found the right man, because this picture is undeniable evidence, I have no idea. I don't even know how she could have managed to take this picture in the first place has my jaw hitting the floor mentally."

"I almost had the same reaction myself when I saw the picture, and Fritzie and Theodore both did when she realized she had the picture." Dave pointed out. "Alright, Officer Cable, I will bring both of them outside for questioning. I will be back in a moment."

Dave ran his fingers down his face in stress. He couldn't believe that any of this was happening anymore. The last eighteen hours was perhaps the strangest series of events that he could ever think up- in fact couldn't think up. He proceeded to walk towards the house to fetch the two in question.

Once Dave walked outside to have a 'pleasant' conversation with the authorities, Fritzie sat down on the steps and buried her face in her arms.

Alvin sank into the steps as well. He knew that they were in for it this time, and just the mere mentioning on how illegal their sabotage was last night made him a little bit scared of his practical joking. 'Note to self,' he thought, 'despite how masterful the plan might have been, never do that again.'

Alvin looked up at Simon, who was walking over to lean on the wall next to the stairwell. He actually felt sorry for Simon. With Simon eager to help out diligently last night meant that Simon was probably going to take it the hardest, although there was a chance that Fritzie might take it harder.

"I haven't seen Dave this mad since the last time you caused an explosion at school," Simon said quietly to Alvin. Truth to be told, he rarely ever seen Dave this angry before. And the fact that Dave was never this angry directly at _him_ before made him feel even more lousy for what he did. Sure, he knew that it was illegal, and it was still worth it for Theodore's sake, but Dave was absolutely right. Who knows what kind of trouble they would be in.

"Yeah, I remember that," Alvin said dryly. He thought back to the next day after Dave promised them that he would host a special contest for them. He knocked over some strange chemical into another strange chemical in the science display that was going on in school that week. The result? A syrupy mess that covered the entire gymnasium. He didn't intend on doing it, so Simon helped lessen that punishment enough. "Dave decided not to cancel the contest though after that bout, and we actually got off pretty easy that time, though both you and Theodore had no part in it."

Simon and Alvin chuckled quietly to themselves. Fritzie would have laughed too, if she wasn't scared out of her mind.

"Do you think that there's a chance that Dave might be lenient about this one?" Alvin said with a hopeful grin. Truth to be told, he would not have done it if he knew how simply illegal the whole thing was.

Simon shrugged. "I'm not sure. We did do what he told us specifically not to do, especially since that this was supposed to be a matter only for the police." Simon thought back to the explosion at school. "Besides, its not like you intended on causing that explosion at school, did you Alvin?"

Alvin shook his head no. Was Simon trying to spike him? Or was Simon just trying to prove a point?

A small smile appeared on Simon's face. "See, this is totally different from that situation." He sighed, and sat down on the stairs next to Alvin. "Regardless of what Dave says though, I still think that what we did last night was totally worth it."

Alvin grinned, and decidedly pushed his dignity aside and hung an arm around Simon. Fritzie looked up and smiled inside her mind, but it still didn't feel reassuring. She sighed and lifted her head up.

"I didn't know he was so strict. If I would've known about how angry he would have gotten, I might have actually forced myself to stop," Fritzie said in a hoarsely upset voice. "Tal is so lenient on me, I've gotten incredibly used to it. He's sort of mischievous, just like you guys are when he's with his friends. He's only nineteen after all."

Simon gave a reassuring look to Fritzie. "Oh, Dave's not that strict. He really just worries endlessly about us. We're only ten years old, and also more than half the time, the slightest thing we do gets reported nationally. He's just trying to protect us in every way he can, whether its from the media circus, or just for our own good. Like last night, we don't always do the best things to stay out of the paper." Simon hung his head shamefully, "he's a good father though."

"Oh," Fritzie said in the same hoarse tone. "Well, I guess we just wait for whatever is going to be thrown at us." And after that, everyone fell silent, despite Theodore's lack of words. Fritzie silently, although against her instinct, wanted to get yelled at. It was training for her to be a little more civilized. Being a dog, she was more driven to act on impulse, even if she didn't necessarily like it. Sometimes, acting on impulse was a wonderful thing, and Theodore is still living proof of it. However, impulses like breaking somebody's window just to put them in a choke hold? She could do without those- well, at least some of them.

Dave walked back inside, dropping the disbelieving look before nearing the door and replacing it with a more stern, but not quite angry look.

"Fritzie?" he called. Fritzie meeped and buried her face in her arms. "The police would like to speak to you and Theodore about what happened yesterday. You three are rather lucky that the gentleman you pranked last night doesn't wish to press charges. They would like to question you about the accident itself."

A wave of relief spread over the three sitting on the stairway. Theodore sat back down in one of the armchairs when Dave walked back outside, although he heard what was going on between the three. Fritzie shakily got up, visibly somewhat upset about her actions less than an hour ago. Dave shook his head in more visible disbelief as he walked outside.

Fritzie followed outside, and Theodore crutched his way behind Fritzie. Theodore was a little edgy about going outside. The whole neighborhood was going to find out about his injuries eventually, but he felt the later the better. He sighed as he followed Fritzie and Dave to Officer Cable.

"It's alright Theodore," Dave said reassuringly, returning to a more normal and caring tone of voice, "I'll be with you the whole time. You don't have to say anything you don't want to, alright?"

Dave sighed again. Now that the charges were called off, he didn't truly want to punish Alvin and Simon for their actions, but there was some things you had to do. He couldn't even punish Fritzie, because she was a kid, however he was pretty sure that her guardian would do something to punish her too.

Fritzie kicked her feet uneasily. She wasn't too afraid of talking about it, she was just afraid of the more 'but you're a dog' slough of prejudices and some legal bull. She quietly waited for directions.

Officer Cable crouched down and focused his attention on Theodore, taking note of Theodore's rather severe looking leg injury. "Your father briefed me slightly on the phone about this, what I would like to know is what happened from both of your perspectives though," he said, fixing a small look at Fritzie, "including you too."

Theodore looked at Officer Cable nervously. "Well, I was waiting for my good friend Eleanor to come over. We were supposed to bake cupcakes for Fritzie here, she won a contest that meant that she could come over and meet us, and hang out for a week," Theodore said shyly.

He looked down at the floor, then back up again when he could build up a little courage to continue speaking. "But when Eleanor never came, I got incredibly worried, and ran outside to look for her. I ran to the street, and peered down the road, but I lost my balance and... and fell into the street. I got up, looked and saw the car coming and tried to get out of the road and run back to the sidewalk. I-I really did!" Theodore's eyes started to water a little bit. "Then, the last thing I could remember was something hard hitting me then I blacked out."

The officer nodded, and patted Theodore on the shoulder. He then turned to Fritzie and awaited her story.

"Well, I was on my way here from Florida, because as Theodore told you, I won a contest to come visit for a week. Anyways as I turned the block, on the last leg of my trip, I kind of noticed a figure in the distance somewhat in a panic, searching around for something. When I got pretty close, he kind of ran towards the street and started looking around. He got a little too close though, because his foot slipped and he fell. I took a quick look behind me, saw the car coming, and instinct kind of took over from there."

She took a small pause, licking the roof of her mouth to try to keep her throat from drying out. "Anyways, I ran full speed to try to get him out of the way. I managed to get up to a pretty good clip, and charged right at him, not really focusing on where or how hard I ran into him. That's kind of sort of why he has a broken leg. The last thing I remember, I heard my cell phone clatter on the road, and I went and grabbed it after Theodore and I landed on the grass and then I passed out."

The officer nodded at her story too. "Okay, now with those stories told to me, I do have another question for you Fritzie."

'Oh no, what is he going to ask me now?' Fritzie thought to herself.

"We observed the tuft of hair on the rims of the man's vehicle. It's too light for Theodore's fur, not to mention its longer and a different texture," he stated, looking as comforting as he could to her, "do you think that there was a possibility of the car clipping you as you got Theodore out of the road?"

Fritzie of course thought 'Yes, he did in fact hit me.' in her mind, but he couldn't exactly know that. Instead, she had to go by what she saw in that brief two seconds between when she hit Theodore and she landed on the other side of the road.

"Yeah, it was a little too close for comfort. I could see the man's tired in mid roll. I got two concussions yesterday, so I didn't feel it right away, but after all of the headaches cleared this morning... yes, I noticed that there was a bald spot on the back of my head this morning," she said as she pointed at the bald spot behind her right ear. "And it does itch a little bit," she added.

"May I have a look?" Officer Cable asked Fritzie. She nodded, and turned around so that he could see for himself. Satisfied, he thanked Fritzie and Theodore for their assistance, however, he wasn't 100 done with Fritzie.

"I have one more question to ask you Fritzie, if you don't mind," he asked Fritzie warmly. Fritzie's heart sank however. She already knew what he was going to ask. "What exactly spurred you to attack the man like that before I arrived?"

Fritzie winced a little bit. She had to explain it in a suiting enough manner to where it would make sense. "Being a dog, I may be rather close to being human, however there's some primal instincts that sometimes get the best of you. When I saw the car come down the street, because I knew about Simon and Alvin's outing last night, I just let my primitive self get the best of me. It's sort of like... having a watchdog attacking an intruder because they are violating their space."

The officer nodded in understanding, but Fritzie wasn't quite done explaining herself.

"Being intelligent for my species, the human reaction part of me tells me that it's wrong and unlawful. But the dog inside of me, even though that none of this would be considered my territory, knew that this man violated my boundaries without any sympathy or remorse for my well being. Even if I don't have said territory around here, he still violated my personal space, by coming in contact with my body in some way shape or form. So it falls back to the watchdog attacking an intruder scenario. I hope you understand what I mean."

"Perfectly clear. I have never in my life worked with a case like this, but I completely understand the rationality. You're a good kid trapped in an, and please forgive me if I offend you when I say this, an unsettling body. I have a guard dog of my own, and I am a police officer after all. There are some cases where we use dogs to either 'sniff out a crime,' forgive me for the pun, or to bring a suspect down if he appears dangerous, or is too fast. So in all senses, I can't get angry at you about it. In fact, since you are aware of your own misdoings, I don't even need to explain to you either."

Fritzie perked up a little bit. Hearing this was such a total relief.

"I still encourage to not do things like this though. Some people may not be as forgiving as I am. It's up to you to train yourself to overcome your primitive challenges."

"That's exactly what I said to myself." Fritzie said with a grin. Dave and Theodore stood in silence, listening to the conversation.

"Okay, once again, thank you both for your assistance." Officer Cable said satisfyingly, cracking his back as he got himself out of a crouching position. Dave looked sternly at Fritzie. Fritzie may have been lifted off the ground just now, but she still had Dave to worry about, and it instantly sunk her in knee deep again.

"Back inside you," Dave said sternly, pointing at the door. He then softened a little and put his hand assuringly on Theodore. "You can stay here if you want to, unless you want to go inside. It won't be too much longer."

Theodore shook his head and crutched his way back inside. He leaned up against the wall by the door, and looked gloomily at Alvin and Simon, who were still sitting on the stairway. They looked a bit more worried than they were when he and Fritzie went outside.

"I wonder what Dave's going to do to you guys. I'm scared. I really tried to talk him out of punishing you guys."

Simon's heart broke at Theodore's earlier gesture. He didn't exactly forget about it, but being reminded of the fact made him feel just as bad. "We do deserve punishment, we disobeyed what Dave told us not to do."

"No you-"

"Theodore..." Simon said with a heavy sigh, cutting Theodore off in mid sentence. "...I'm sure Alvin is happy to hear this, now that you reminded both of us, but it doesn't change how I feel. Thank you though."

Theodore's face dropped and simply waited for Fritzie to come back inside.

Fritzie stood for a moment, trying to process everything that was going on, then nodded, but stayed to ask one final question.

"Can I have my cell phone back please? Or is it still needed for investigation?" Fritzie asked Officer Cable.

"We still need the picture for evidence I'm afraid. As soon as this matter is done though, we will return the phone to you in the same condition, I promise."

"Oh, alright," Fritzie said dejectedly. She could only hope now that I didn't call her while the police had her phone. She began walking back towards the house, expecting more bad things to come.

"Just one second please officer," Dave called as he ran to catch up with Fritzie. Fritzie hung her head. "Fritzie, do you know Tal's number by heart? Otherwise we can get it off your phone before the police go."

Fritzie looked pointly at Dave and shook her head no. "I better jot it down. And I guess we better call him right away then. I don't want him to call and have the police answer the phone with me nowhere in sight. He will probably take this a bit lighter than you did, but it would completely freak him out if I'm not around for the phone."

She thought for a second, thinking about my reaction. It was absolutely true about the freaking out part. I wouldn't know what to do with myself, and I would have to wait longer in a nerve racking stew waiting for a response back.

"Just let me go grab something to write it down on. I don't trust my memory right now." Fritzie said as he hurried a bit to get into the house for some sort of writing utensil and some sort of paper to write it down on.

Dave ran back to Officer Cable, "Won't be a moment, we just have to write down Fritzie's guardian's phone number, if you don't mind," he said amiably as he waited for Fritzie.

"Not at all," Officer Cable said with a smile.

Fritzie hurried inside the house, ignoring the boys for now as she noted the pen on the coffee table. She picked that up, then rummaged through her jeans pockets for the letter. She took that, folded it up, and scurried back outside.

Once they took the number down, Fritzie sulked her way back inside, and Dave took his leave from the police.

He turned to Alvin and Simon. "I just need to make a phone call, _then_ we are having a chat about what happened last night and what we're going to do about it alright? Stay sitting right where you are."

Simon and Alvin silently nodded, still sitting on the stairwell. With that in mind, Dave did a quick look around for Fritzie, who was standing right next to him off to the side. He beckoned her to follow him, as he went to go grab the cordless off the hook in the kitchen and walked into the laundry room.

"Alright Fritzie, what's Tal's number?" Dave asked. He didn't sound angry anymore, but he still sounded worried and exasperated. Fritzie silently handed him the envelope. Over the past two years, she became rather adept at writing, so her handwriting was clear and legible.

Dave dialed my number, then put the phone to his ear.

**I'm sure you guys are itching to find out how badly they all are going to get punished, including Fritzie. :P What happens next? Reviews, reviews, reviews.**


	24. Chapter 23: Fitting Punishment

**Okay, I'm satisfied with the reviews now. So I didn't end up delaying the story after all. Woohoo! Lol with the Tak bit Nikki. :P**

**I'll tell you guys straight up right now, this _is_ the longest chapter of the story. I could not find an appropriate stopping point in this chapter, or else this probably would be Chapters 23 and 24. (This chapter is 8,300 words not including this author's note.)**

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**Cheers, enjoy the chapter.**

-Narf

**--Chapter 23: Fitting Punishment--**

I was sleeping relatively lightly. After getting out late last night, and a horrible remainder of my shift at work, I could only half blame myself for sleeping so late. I was having curious dreams though. I was messing around with some recording equipment. Where in the hell would I get recording equipment? I also got a brief glimpse somewhere in there about Fritzie breaking a window. It was incredibly vague, but the anger in it was astounding.

My dreams have a funny way of talking to me. Lately, my dreams have been somewhat foreshadowing future events, although I couldn't really explain it. I mean, dreaming about Fritzie tackling Theodore out in front of a car for two weeks straight had to mean something after all.

Anyways, as a precautionary measure when I got home that night, I turned the ringer on for my cordless phone. People normally don't call on Sunday, so if the phone rang, it was probably going to be Fritzie.

In mid dream, the phone began ringing loudly right next to me. The first ring sounded like it was actually part of the dream, but the second one called me back to reality.

I grabbed the phone in a sleep induced stupor. I felt like crap, as expected for everything that happened yesterday. I looked at the caller-id. It read:

**'California Call'  
'1-000-000-0000'**

I shook my head. Either this was a telemarketer, or it was this Dave person calling me. I took my chances, partly because I was half asleep, and answered the phone.

"Uhlo?" I said groggily, still in my sleep induced stupor.

"Hi there Tal, this is Dave Seville."

I blinked dumbly. The name didn't register at first, so I said dumbly into the phone, "Okay, you caught me off guard. I'm not interested in buying anything, no sale, no sale, you owe me five bucks. Now take me off your mailing list and don't call me back ag-"

Dave started laughing into the phone. I looked at the phone dumbly. Telemarketers don't laugh at their customers. "No no no, you have this all wrong, this is Dave Seville, your dog- er," he winced at the comment and looked at Fritzie painfully. Fritzie waved her hand in front of her, meaning that she didn't take it offensively, "Fritzie saved my son yesterday afternoon."

I jerked and hit my head on my bedroom wall. That woke me up. "Oh, hi. You have my attention now."

"I know you were going to call her later but a few things came up and we didn't want you to panic later if you couldn't get Fritzie on her cell." Dave really began to take note of the sleepy tone in my voice. "Look, if this is a bad time, I can leave you my num-"

After rubbing my head a little bit after smacking it into the wall, I felt wide awake now. "Nononononono, that's fine. I'm awake now. I should have gotten up earlier but I had a rotten night at work. Was closing last night, and I work in a dead end fast food job, you have to understand."

"I understand, I went through that stage in my life." Dave replied warmly.

"Nononono please, I'll talk about it right now. I feel bad for not calling earlier, is everything okay? I almost didn't believe her last night when she sketched over the details."

"Everything's fine, with a few exceptions." Dave thought of his two eldest in their little rendezvous last night. "We found out this morning that she had been clipped by the car when she saved my son last night. She's alright, it was nothing major, but she personally didn't take it that well."

I wanted to cut in right then and there. **Clipped?** How in the hell would mom react to it... better yet how would _I_ react to it!? I started to shake a little bit.

"The police are handling it now," Dave continued, "and they have taken her cell phone in as evidence. By pure accident, she managed to capture a picture of the license plate of the car involved. I feel I should apologize, this week definitely hasn't started out the way it was meant to and I'm afraid that it might not finish too well either, with Theodore relatively house bound... and Alvin and Simon taking matters into their own hands." Dave sighed. Sometimes it was too hard to be a single parent of three young boys.

"Clipped!?" I said in exasperation. Boy, this guy sure had a way to strike a chord. "Okay, tell me _exactly_ what happened! From start to finish, including this 'taking matters into their own hands' bit, because if they did something, I'm going to give you a full guarantee that Fritzie had some involvement into this ordeal." I said, trying to calm myself down. If I think what this 'taking matters into their own hands' bit was what I thought it meant, I could only hope that whatever it was, she did it cleanly.

"Aright." And so Dave went on into the whole story, starting off with the phone call he received while he was grocery shopping, and how he literally dropped whatever he had in his hands and hurried as fast as he could home. He described the accident as how Theodore and Fritzie themselves told it, and the condition he found both of them in. He then began describing to me rather loosely the doctors visit, and what the extent of the injuries were.

I was a bit horrified about how badly Fritzie broken Theodore's leg, but Dave said that everyone wholeheartedly forgiven her, that if she didn't there would be more than just the broken leg. I still didn't get the 'not taking it well' part. Fritzie is pretty strong, its not like her to break down about it, unless 'not taking it well' meant that she let anger overtake her.

Then he began to talk about the fact that the story was loosely on national TV right now. I shook my head to it, and silently decided on watching it somehow later... maybe drive to Cameron's house or something to catch up on it.

After that he described about the encounter with the culprit again, Fritzie's ultimate reaction, and the unfolding of some of their plans last night, although he apparently didn't know much about it.

The he went on about his discovery of the whole situation of finding out bits and pieces of what they did over the course of the night. "...and glued him to the driver's seat."

Dave shook his head. "What I can't believe is that it seems like Simon willingly joined in with Alvin even after I told them not to try anything. But to do with the reporters, they will probably be hanging around for the next couple of days. Would you prefer if I kept them away from Fritzie?" He knew that some guardians weren't happy with their children, as in my case, siblings, involved with the media circus. Hell, his boys were known worldwide and he wasn't happy about Alvin's love for attention from them.

"It's Fritzie's choice if whether or not she wants to deal with the reporters. I know she could hear my entire half of the conversation, even if she was on the opposite side of the house. I mean, I know she's right next to you, but she has excellent hearing."

Dave looked over at Fritzie, who grinned sheepishly. "I try to tune out of much of my surroundings, but what he's saying is true."

"You see, she even responded to what I said just now. That's enough proof in itself," I said, half proud, but half annoyed at the same time. Fritzie winced.

"As for the rest of the stuff, I want to hear what Fritzie has to say about this... sabotage as you are making it sound like. I want to know exactly what she did as a part of it, because if Fritzie likes someone enough, she wont just let it pass. And if Fritzie was totally against it, she would have stopped them last night before they even got past the planning stages. If I can hear the story about one of the key pieces missing in the whole event, I can come to a judgment as to what to do about it. May I speak with her please?" I said in a somewhat serious tone. Gluing somebody to their car seat? Sabotage? It sounds like a more devious version of my friends and I when I was a kid. It in fact, sounded too much like my friend Brian.

Dave nodded into the phone, although he knew I couldn't see it. "Of course, I just wanted to know your opinion on that matter. Here she is," he said, handing Fritzie the phone as she approached.

The first thing Fritzie asked me when she received the phone was, "How mad at me are you?" I couldn't help but laugh a little bit.

"It really all depends on what you did last night. Dave doesn't have a clue about what really went on last night, but I know damn straight you had something to do with it. You and I both know that you would have stopped Simon or Alvin, which I see you became good friends with so you weren't kidding yesterday, before they even made it past the planning stages."

"Yeah I heard," Fritzie said dumbly. I didn't know whether that was sarcastic, or she was just implying her hearing.

"So, my dear, explain to me exactly what happened last night, without missing a detail," I said shrewdly.

So Fritzie then began explaining her bit, starting off with the possible plans in the hospital, because the first ones to see the picture were Theodore, then Alvin, then Simon. She explained the small bit about planning it in the car before dinner that night, which the dinner sounded absolutely delicious. I'm a sucker for Italian food.

Then when they got home, she mentioned about them running past her real fast before beginning their plans. Apparently, Simon did a little bit of hacking, which Dave threw his hand in his face at the thought. After that, when they discovered where the guy lived, they began planning out a ridiculous prank that sounded like it would have to be complete and utter luck for it to work. She explained how it worked though, both the car bit and the house bit, although if there was a potato in the muffler, and it was supposed to cut the car out before he even left, did that mean that it was false?

She explained her demand to be involved at that point, as lookout initially. So this started off pretty clean, although it didn't sound clean to Dave.

She explained the passing of the car halfway there, and how it smelled like booze and pot. Dave's jaw dropped, so now the man was doing things under the influence too? Ultimately, the guy being wasted helped make the sabotage pretty easy.

Once they arrived, Fritzie was quite stunned at how perfect the setup was, and I had to laugh at that. Karma was a funny thing. She told me how well the sabotage was going, although she had a feeling that she was being watched. I cringed a little bit, because a watching feeling could mean anything. When she found out it was a cat though, I let go of the pillow that I was unintentionally squeezing. I was still in bed after all.

I had the whole conversation this far on speaker-phone, and my mom finally showed herself from eavesdropping the whole time.

"Hi Fritzie," mom said quietly behind me. I couldn't help but jump.

'Oh no,' was what ran through _both_ of our minds. "Eh, hi mom."

Dave flinched. "I assume that this is Tal's mother?"

"Yes, but Tal is the one responsible for me, hence why hes my brother guardian figure. Mom, however, still is guardian over him." Fritzie explained to him. "How much of the conversation did you hear?"

"Tal left the phone on speaker-phone, dear," mom replied back to her, "don't let me stop you though, this is Tal's responsibility though. I'm going to have to talk to _him_ about this though when he's done with the phone."

"Yay." I said sarcastically. My mom beamed me a look, which I couldn't help but flash a sheepish grin at her. Then decided to continue on with the phone conversation. "Okay, so discovered that the watching feeling was just a cat hiding in the bushes, now what."

So then Fritzie explained to me, and inadvertently Dave, the truth behind the discovery of her being clipped. Dave shook his head. Of course, he would have completely believed her when she 'discovered' it before he left for the store that morning, but now he knew the truth behind it. Fritzie was a pretty good actress.

She then got to the part where she got viciously angry, and all of her hairs standing on end. That's an anger I only seen once in the two years she was anthropomorphic.

"Fritzie, you have to watch that anger and impulse problem of yours. I understand that you would get mad about that, I would too if I found my fur caught in somebody else's rims too if I had fur. But you still could have possibly endangered the boys, even though I know how protective you are."

"I know Tal, I was real careful about it. I still had some self control, and if Simon wasn't there for me when I got mad, I probably would have completely lost it right then and there instead of later that morning when the guy pulled down the block," she said apologetically. "I did end up destroying the potato in the muffler though, so that's probably why we caught the guy so fast."

"I'll give you that, but when I do see you in a few days, I'm going full time training about your impulse problem, you got that? I know that this isn't something that has developed overnight," I said sternly.

"Yes..." Fritzie said weakly into the phone. Mom grinned behind me. I was taking the right responsibilities for what Fritzie did, and for what I did when I dumbly signed her up for the contest in the first place.

"And what else is there? You didn't quite finish." I replied into the phone.

Fritzie sighed, then continued, beginning with her calming down and getting home. She explained the plan of meticulously covering up the evidence, and when Fritzie told me about the cleaning out the refrigerator part, Dave instinctively went into the kitchen and looked in the refrigerator. It was real clean, so he had to give Simon that. He walked back into the room as Fritzie was touching up on waking up that morning.

She explained about Alvin and Simon literally falling out of bed, and I had to laugh a little bit about it. She explained about much of that conversation, and the reporter trying to solicit a story out of them. I grinned about her protecting Theodore like a good guard dog. After all, thats what she was.

Then she explained about the second coming, the one that Dave briefly touched up on before, and her exact reactions. Dave and I both had the same reaction about the window breaking.

"You roundhouse kicked a car window and shattered it on your first try!?" I yelled into the phone. "Fritzie, that's tempered glass! How did you manage to do that!?"

"I- out tempered it?" Fritzie said dumbly, not knowing how to explain it. I fell off the bed laughing at that one.

"Oh my gosh! Haha oh my god wow." I said, struggling to get myself out of the narrow space between my computer table and my bed and back to a sitting position on my bed. My mom began laughing too.

"What's so funny?" Fritzie asked plaintively, now getting that she made a pun out of it. Dave chuckled silently under his breath at the painful pun.

"Nice little pun there Fritzie, I see that you still have your sense of humor." I said, getting over the laughing. Fritzie grinned.

"It was an accident."

"Anyways, listen. I'm going to go very easy on you, _very_ easy on you. The fact that you were only clipped minorly made me freak out simply because you were hit, but hearing the story puts me to rest a little bit. However, as soon as you get home, I'm going to train you on your impulses _full time_," I said sternly. "And when I say full time..." I said, softening up and trailing off, "...I mean full time."

Fritzie shot a glance at Dave, who was now soaking up the final pieces of the puzzle.

"Full time? What do you mean by full time exactly, you don't sound too happy. And when I say that, I mean sad unhappy not disappointed and angry unhappy," Fritzie said in a sincere and concerned tone.

I finally had to vent some of my frustrations, regardless if mom was in the room or not. Last night at work emotionally hurt.

"Fritzie, I'm going to quit my job. I can't do this anymore," I said, almost like I was going to cry from stress. It alarmed mom a little bit.

"What do you mean?" Fritzie asked worriedly. She sat down on the floor when she heard this bit. She was heartbroken that I would actually quit my job because of her even though I needed the money.

"I need to find another job, Fritzie. Nobody at work cared about how I felt or what happened to me last night when I went back to work. Instead, they either bit back at me with their own personal problems, or they laughed at me in disbelief. Only one person understood me enough to care, and it felt horrible. I can't do this anymore, so while I'm looking for another job I'm going to carry through with your impulse training."

Fritzie thought for a second, getting up off the floor. "Tal, can you hold on a second? I have to talk to Dave about something."

'Oh no,' I thought irritably, 'now she's going to beg him to help me find a job.'

Mom frowned, noticing my reaction to what Fritzie said. "What are you reacting to now?"

"I think Fritzie's going to try to ask him to help me find a job," I said quickly to mom, then called into the phone. "Fritzie, please. You dont have to!"

"Just hold on," Fritzie said, putting down the phone. I groaned loudly.

Fritzie approached Dave sheepishly. "Um, I remember you mentioned something about making it up to me about saving Theodore's life. I was originally going to ask something, but in retrospect it was a pretty bad question. So if you are willing to hear me, I would like to make a more reasonable request, if you aren't too mad to listen."

Dave nodded. He wasn't exactly angry anymore, and with the police settling things, it was more disappointment instead. "Of course. Despite what may have occurred earlier this morning, I am a man of my word."

"Fritzie, this is **exactly** what I mean by impulse training!" I called out loudly and irritably over the phone.

Fritzie narrowed her eyes and stared piercingly into the phone. "Shut it you! I'm doing you a favor!" Fritzie yelled back at the phone.

Dave's eye twitched. Fritzie knew what that meant. She grinned apologetically.

"It's the only way I can get him to accept my help in his current situation. I know he's way too prideful to ask you, or anyone at all for that matter, so this is why I'm asking you this instead. But um," she said scratching the back of her head awkwardly, "do you have any job openings available?"

"Job openings?" Dave asked curiously. Fritzie nodded.

"He told me that he's officially quitting his job. He told me about what happened at work last night after he called. He got completely fed up with the lack of respect that his co-workers give him, no matter how compassionate and helpful he is. In essence, he's sort of like Theodore, he cares too much for other people's well being, and willingly helps people out. He gets irritated quite easily at work, but he never really lets it get to him, not like this. Last night when he was concerned about me, his coworkers either dished their problems right back at him, or they just laughed at how idiotic the story was."

"Thats awful," Dave said with a frown.

"The problem is though, he's way too independent- and shy for that matter- to ask anyone for help, so this is why I'm doing it for him. I was originally going to just simply ask for an extended stay, but this one sounds better. Besides, it would mean that I could become a more regular friend, and with Tal around, I'm pretty sure I won't be doing anything ridiculous as I did last night. That might have gotten us started off on the wrong foot."

"Come on Fritzie, please?" I begged into the phone. "You really don't have to do this to him, I can find another job in fast food, or something! Don't put him through more crap than he has already gone through!"

Fritzie slapped her hand into her face, noting that the comment was loud enough even for Dave to hear. "This is exactly what I mean! He tortures himself trying to make a living, but is too strong to accept any help for it. As it is he can barely afford helping to chip into where we live now, plus car insurance, plus having to take care of me. Are there any job openings in your business profession, any at all?"

I pounded my head into my computer desk. It sounded so much like me when I was a kid, and I knew the reactions all too well. What was she trying to do, piss the man off no end?

Dave had to admit though, that it was a very nice gesture that Fritzie did for me as her guardian, and even better that I could (attemptively) prevent her from taking part of the boys' schemes. "I can't promise anything, Fritzie. However, one of the sound technicians for the boys' recording company is leaving real soon. I'll ask around, but not unless Tal is alright with it. It would mean moving across the country after all."

"I can't speak for him, but I'm sure he will take it given the opportunity. He likes fooling around with sound effects and stuff anyways," Fritzie said putting a 'finger' to her nose. "Here, I'll have you talk to him about it," she said as she approached the phone.

"What the hell are you doing!?" I growled into the phone. God, sometimes I sound just like my mom. Actually, mom started laughing about my reaction to it.

"I never thought that you would actually react that way, Tal." Mom said in between laughs.

I flashed a look at her. "Hey, I learned from the best," I said, meaning her.

Fritzie sighed irritably, "Okay listen, I know you weren't going to say anything, and would have just abused yourself to your limit when I got home, so I had to do it. So here, _you_ talk to Dave about it, then decide whatever judgment day punishment you are going to slam on me about it now, and whatever the boys' will face too," she said, ceremoniously handing Dave the phone.

"Hello?" Dave said into the phone. I sighed loudly.

"Eheh, I'm sorry about Fritzie. She has a knack of over-helping..." I said sheepishly. I could only imagine how badly my ears were going to be chewed off because of it.

Fritzie began walking towards the living room through the kitchen, where she was greeted by a nerve-racked Alvin, and a rather sober looking Simon.

Alvin was pacing nervously in front of the stairs, while Simon hadn't moved at all. Alvin looked at Fritzie almost in a panic. They had been on the phone for almost an hour! He looked at Simon.

"What? Oh no, it's alright. Theodore can be like that at times too. What I said to her though was that I can't promise anything, but one of the sound technicians at the boys' recording studio is leaving real soon. If you want a job on the other side of the country I can offer you up as a suggestion for a replacement, if you are interested that is," Dave said warmly into the phone.

"What do you think they are talking about in there!? Digging our graves?!" Alvin almost shouted nervously.

I thought about it for a second. This could be my breakthrough of a lifetime, but all the same, I didn't want to leave the meager amount of friends I had at home behind. If anything, that would be the only thing keeping me behind, because I was getting tired of all the crap job opportunities around here, and living on my own sounded fashionable at the time. I love my mom, but I also want to get out into the world too.

Simon slapped himself. "Stop being so melodramatic, Alvin! Save that for the next time you're on stage. Preferably the next one out of town." He said with a smirk, but it quickly vanished again when he realized that Fritzie was there.

"I certainly would take the job. However, the problem is, I don't have a place to stay. As Fritzie probably told you, I can barely afford chipping in to where I live now, not to mention car insurance. I mean, I'm sure that you guys have it well and made right now, and it sounds pleasantly easy, but I've always lived my life struggling to get by. That's how it is with my mom too. And what's even more of a challenge is taking care of and raising a hyperactive anthropomorphic dog. Fritzie is awesome, but sometimes like last night, she doesn't quite do the brightest things."

"I understand, sort of." Dave replied. I sighed then continued.

"So anyways, as far as I see it unless some sort of miracle happens I don't know how the job opportunity will work out. Los Angeles is like New York City probably with rent, and being born and raised on Long Island, rent probably is almost the same there if not as expensive. In Florida, where I live now, things are much more affordable, but even here it's a continuous struggle to get by," I explained into the phone. I appreciated the friendly gesture, but that was the absolute truth.

I thought for a second. "Sorry, I'm babbling. I'm a little stressed out right now, I'm sure you understand pretty well."

Dave thought for a second. "Listen, I know that we only know each other through our children, and even then in only the space of a day Fritzie did save Theodore and the boys, even Alvin who I was real shaky about, get along real well with her." Dave sighed, I guess this was worth an attempt. "I have a guest room in the attic that you would be welcome to use until you can get on your feet."

I shot a look at mom, who threw her hands at me. "Don't look at me Tal, this is your call."

"I... really don't know what to say. I don't want to be a burden really." I still felt guilty of all of the carnage that they had to deal with on Fritzie's behalf.

"It's the least I can do. I don't know what I would have done if I lost Theodore." Dave said, standing up straight after leaning against the wall for quite some time. He stretched a little bit.

My eyes lit up. "You really wouldn't mind that at all?" I asked, looking at mom again in confusion. I whispered to her, "What do I do?"

Mom looked at me reassuringly. "Follow your little dream here. You wanted something interesting to happen, go for it. We'll talk about this after your call."

I blinked dumbly. Mom was just letting me do this? Well, just about no strings attached now. I just had to smooth things over with Cameron, Paul, and Eden somehow.

"No, of course I don't mind," Dave said as he began to enter the kitchen.

"Thank you so much! I'll get myself ready and I should be there in about a week. I'm going to have to drive there."

Dave sighted Alvin pacing from the kitchen. "Excuse me a second Tal," he said, putting the phone down and entering the space between the kitchen and the living room. "Alvin! I told you to stay sitting down until I was done here. We still need to talk about what you and Simon done last night."

"I can't help it! I'm too nervous to sit down anymore and you have been on the phone for over an hour! Is it that bad to pace?" Alvin yelled out, waving his arms up and down in a full out panic. Dave pointed at the foot of the stairs. Alvin sulked and sat back down.

"Sorry about that," Dave said as he put the phone back to his ear.

"Oh, that's okay. Wow, you sound furious about what your kids did. Are they alright? I mean are Alvin and Simon physically alright?" I asked in concern.

"What? No, I mean, yes they're alright. I should have expected this behavior from them last night, Alvin especially. If someone hurts one of them the other two get revenge of sorts. It's an admirable quality I must admit... except for when I **forbid them from doing anything**." Dave said, calling the last bit loud enough for Alvin and Simon to hear it before entering the laundry room again. "I'm more disappointed in their actions than angry though."

I laughed. "I can't blame them. I didn't have the luck of having siblings when I was a kid, however I considered my closer friends as brothers instead. If one of us were in trouble of some sort, the rest of us would work out some sort of plan to either help him out or get back at the other, even if it was sometimes the most minor of things. I understand the disappointment, I'm slightly disappointed myself that Fritzie would just break somebody's window ruthlessly like that. But you know what, she's a good watchdog. I can't really say much to her, except that she took her impulses a little bit to extreme, and thats why I have to train her and only me. I'm the only one that fully understands her personality, so I really will be the only one who can get it through to her. So in a sense, this is my way of- punishing her if you would like to get technical. But in both of our eyes, it's more of an improvement opportunity than a punishment per say."

"You're Fritzie's guardian. Whatever you feel necessary I'll make sure happens on your behalf. I still have to decide on what to do to give proper punishment for Alvin and Simon," Dave said, beginning to think of ways how to ground them.

I thought to myself. Dave didn't sound like he was completely for punishing them, but felt it was necessary. I began to worry though about how I reacted towards being punished. "I could maybe help you come up with a reasonable, um... I wouldn't call it punishment, but a solution to this. Punishing them for this makes it sound like somewhat in my, and probably in all three of your kids- Theodore included, opinion like that they are being punished for defending themselves, if you understand what I mean."

Dave frowned a little bit. "Yeah, I can somewhat understand what you mean. I have a few things that I have in mind for the boys that won't adversely affect Fritzie's stay here."

"If you don't mind me asking, what do you have in mind for the boys? Maybe I can fine tune this a little bit. After reading up on some of the antics Alvin and Simon have, if they could carry out such a smooth sabotage like that, I'm sure we could put our heads together to work out something in terms of a solution."

"Okay, what I had in mind was extra daily chores, no TV, video games, or computer access, and an earlier bedtime." Dave said bluntly. I almost snorted at his idea on a 'non aversive' punishment.

"Hmmm," I mumbled, trying to think of what _would result_ from that punishment idea. "It does sound like a very tempting idea. However, and a big however, you would probably not only make yourself more miserable trying to quiet them down, but you also might spark a rebellion, which leads to even more trouble." I looked at mom, remembering some of the times I was grounded for what I thought was absolutely stupid. "Trust me, when I got grounded or punished, I tried to come up with schemes for rebellion. And considering that they did it, albeit against your permission, for a noble cause... it will cause that much more problems. As Fritzie might have told you, I'm still only nineteen. As a teenager, I'm still very close to my inner kid."

Dave listened silently for me to finish.

"Instead, would you be opt for an alternate solution? I mean, you don't have to oblige if you don't want to, but I'm trying to save you, Alvin, Simon, and potentially Theodore as well, some problems. I know Theodore had nothing to do with Alvin's actual plan last night. What I'm afraid of though that even though he won't get a taste of this punishment soup, it will still spill onto him, whether its because he wants to help his brothers out- or because you will be giving him less of your much needed attention."

Dave sighed, that was true enough. But any punishment, even if it was completely deserved, was always rebelled against by at least one of his sons. He was sure that there was going to be little complaint by Simon, but Alvin had the ability to over-dramatize something as little as a stubbed toe. "I'm willing to listen."

So I sat myself ready to give him the long explanation of what I had in mind.

"Okay, if I can pick up on Simon's personality correctly, he probably already feels that being punished will be strongly deserved. Taking away all of those said privileges would probably not phase him much at this time. If he was going to do any research online, since you would be revoking his internet privileges, it would probably be of ways how to medically help Theodore feel more comfortable. He may be a little irked about it, but he won't even lift a complaint. So from my perspective, not punishing Simon would probably be the worst punishment that you can give him. Since he is wholeheartedly expecting it, he will wallow in his own confusion and doubts, and make him think a little bit more on what he did. However, I wouldn't necessarily say that he is off the hook either."

"As for Alvin, I wouldn't quite punish him either. He will nag on it regardless of any punishment you give him, and if he sees that Simon is off the hook, he will nag on it even more. If Alvin is as overdramatic as it is said he is, it would probably be better to get overdramatized gratitude, then overdramatized anguish."

"Tal, you shouldn't tell other people how to punish their kids." Mom said to me bluntly. I looked at her.

"I'm just letting experience talk here, he doens't have to listen to me at all if he doesn't want to. I'm just trying to save him some unwanted insanity in his current predicament."

Mom rolled her eyes and fell silent.

"Anyways, as I was saying. Instead, have a nice long talk about it, a more friendly talk instead of a stern talking to, because if it was stern it would probably be a little more awkward. If they are comfortable, they might reveal some of the more exact motives behind last night's attack, something that Fritzie may not have picked up on. That plan that they came up with was absolutely brilliant, but it was also needless to say, dangerous. Explaining to them how dangerous what they did last night was, or any pranking they might do to the neighbors for that matter, might convince them to lighten up on it. Also, perhaps they should have consulted Theodore about it first. I know it sounds kind of silly, but if Theodore is the way I think he is, he probably would have been the only one who would have been able to talk _them out of it_, and this includes Fritzie. If Theodore would have convinced Fritzie not to do it, Fritzie would have made sure that Alvin and Simon would not have gone through with it last night."

"Mmhmm." Dave mumbled into the phone.

"These are all just ideas. I feel punishing them for what they did is a little too much, but I'm also way too lenient for my own good, and I'll be the first to admit it. Plus, and I haven't forgotten about Fritzie, any punishments would adversely affect her stay. No matter how small it is, something could happen to get her involved in it. Being as the only one who can train her for her impulses, I also know many of her triggers. If they begin to devise some sort of scheme, Fritzie will automatically get involved with it in some way shape or form. She's a good moderator, but if she approves of something, that could lead to trouble. It's impulsive behavior of hers. If there is anything that angers her, which should be none at this point other than other people's prejudices which she can control herself from, that could trigger an impulse."

"Yes, I witnessed that first hand." Dave commented.

"Yeah, you see? Also, if something is bothering someone she cares for, which in this case is all three of your boys, even _that_ may trigger an impulse. Until I get there, she could act on impulse, whether she likes it or not."

After finally explaining some of my thoughts, I 're-read the script' so to speak in my mind, figuring that Dave might not entirely approve of what I just said. "In conclusion, I'll try to come up with a better suggestion that does result with some sort of punishment if you don't approve of that."

Dave pretty much liked the idea, because it absolutely made sense from multiple angles. However, he still didn't feel that Alvin should get off this scot-free.

"Alvin tends to overstep his boundaries regardless, even if he knows that he overstepped his boundaries. I'm afraid that if I don't do something he'll do something worse next time, maybe even hurt himself. I'll keep what you said in mind though. As for a talk, I had that already planned before I called you, with Fritzie in there as well if you don't mind. Otherwise, I can send her to keep Theodore company while I'm talking to the boys."

"Oh, I should have guessed about the talk. Um, yes, I do want Fritzie to be in on this talk. Just because I'm the only one that can train her per say, doesn't mean that I'm the only one who can talk to her either. Talking to her about it would probably be to her benefit." I said.

Dave nodded. "Okay, I will do that."

"And I also understand the Alvin bit of it, and very well understand your concern, but maybe instead of grounding him maybe give him a more unannounced punishment; a taste of his own medicine. Why not _prank him_ and see how much he likes it. I mean, it might be a little more unorthodox since it is coming out of a teenager's mouth after all, but it might be a good lesson if he is on the receiving end, you know what I mean? And if you are involved slightly, even in a role as minor as taking Alvin out somewhere, it might influence him that much more. You know what I mean?"

Dave chuckled slightly. The boys would have a whale of a time pranking Alvin, though it went against what he tried to teach them. He might have to keep it in mind the next time Alvin pranked Simon or Theodore. "Yes I understand and I'll have to keep in in mind, though I think it's done them both the world of good to sweat it out while we've been talking. It's not always like this around here, sometimes it's much worse," he said, only half jokingly.

"Oh, absolute chaos? Yeah, I hear that," I said with a wholehearted chuckle. Fritzie could get that way if you give her the wrong kind of soda. Fritzie is a heavy Mountain Dew drinker, but sometimes she ventures to other sodas, and it could have much more adverse effects. It's not caffeine that does this to her, but if you give her a Pepsi, she goes absolutely nuts. Might be the cola in it. "Alright, I didn't mean to keep you on the phone for so long, like I said earlier, I have the tendency to babble. I have some things I need to do anyways, like officially quit my job like I told myself to do today, plus talk with my mom about this and say goodbye to the few friends I have down here. Um, until you are certain about the job, I will happily babysit the boys for you if you need, I'm sure I have ways of reaching out to all three of them in some way or another. Oh, and thanks again so much for your kind gestures, I guess there still are some truly good people left in the world today," I said. It was sort of a political statement, but it mainly had to do with work last night.

"Oh it's no problem. Oh and before you go, if you need to get in touch with me or Fritzie I'll wait while you grab pen and paper..." he said, as I grabbed paper and he rattled off his phone number to me. "It's an unlisted number for obvious reasons so I advise agaisn't losing it."

"Alright thank you. The caller ID proved that, that's why I thought you were a telemarketer when I woke up this morning. Anyways, thanks again and take care."

"Yeah, it was nice talking to you Tal, and I might be talking to you again sometime before the week is out."

"Yup, laters." I said, in my signature 'good-bye' fashion. Good-bye sounded lame.

"Bye-bye," Dave said as he hung up the phone.

Mom got up from sitting on my bed and gave me a look. "Well?"

"Well what? I don't know what 'well?' means mom. You're the one who wanted to talk with me, give me a starting point."

"Are you satisfied with what you did, letting Fritzie go like that?" Mom asked me.

"That's a double edged sword. In a sense, no because Fritzie caused all sorts of trouble, which I was expecting anyways. Also, I mean, it worried me endless."

Mom gave me a satisfied grin, but I didn't quite finish yet.

"But in another sense, yes. Basically, Fritzie now has a starting point in terms of Friends. She has a trio of brothers that she can somewhat relate to, I mean she gets along with all _three_ of them. I never heard her so jumpy to just jump right into a potentially dangerous sabotage like that. Besides, she also scored me the opportunity of a lifetime. I can't exactly regret that. It's going to be a little hard letting my friends go, but with this job if I land it, I can come home and visit sometime, and visit my friends here as well while I'm here."

"Are you positive that this is going to work out, this job opportunity?" she asked me in concern.

"No, I'm not positive. But I have been having dreams about this whole thing mom. I mean, if the Fritzie saving Theodore bit came true, maybe the job bit will too. If not, I can always come home and try again." I said with a weak grin.

Mom sighed. "Well, go do what you got to do, I'll back you on it as much as I can."

I gave my mom a hug. "Thanks, mom."

As Dave was almost finished with the phone, Alvin was now extremely frustrated and began pounding his head into the floor because of how long Dave was on the phone. Fritzie was staring off into space thinking about her own problems, and Simon and Theodore looked worriedly at Alvin.

After a few good head pounds, Alvin looked up at Fritzie. "Hey, since you have good ears, what are they talking about right now?"

Fritzie just continued staring into space. Her eyes were slightly glazing over. Alvin got up.

"Hey! Are you even listening to me!?" Alvin said, poking Fritzie once in the side and calling her back to reality. Fritzie shook her head to wave off whatever spell she was under and looked stupidly at Alvin.

"Huh? What happened? What did I miss? Are they off the phone yet?" Fritzie said, rubbing her head tenderly. "I was so busy wondering about what kind of hell Tal will put me through with this impulse training was I must have spaced out for a bit."

Alvin sighed and crept back over to the stairs and resumed pounding his head into the floor. Now Fritzie looked at Alvin worriedly.

"What's the matter with you?" Fritzie commented, before waving her hands in front of her. "Never mind, I think I can guess."

Simon found this to be a good teasing opportunity, to help lighten up his own mood. "Alvin!" Simon admonished, "What has the floor done to you that you have to treat it like that?"

Alvin looked over at Simon almost apathetically. "It's existence, Simon." He went back to pounding.

When Dave finally got off the phone, he walked out of the kitchen to find Alvin pounding his head into the floor one last time before sitting somewhat normally. He raised an eyebrow. "Alvin, what _are_ you doing exactly?"

Fritzie shook her head. "If I didn't know any better, relieving stress, Dave," Fritzie said worriedly. They were on the phone for almost an hour and a half, and she missed the actual punishment bit for them, so she couldn't shed light either.

"Alvin, you're acting as if Dave is going to kill us, which is completely illogical!" Simon exclaimed. It didn't mean that he was still incredibly nervous about what Dave would do though.

Alvin started to drool a little bit from the dizziness, but caught himself and got up to stretch out. "I know he's not going to kill us but the wait... it burnssss... ss ss... Okay, I'm done with that now." Alvin said, catching himself and not trying to be too much more overdramatic.

Simon slapped his older brother in the back of the head. Sometimes he acted younger than Theodore! 'I think to think that we share the same gene pool,' he thought to himself, because he didn't want an even more critical reaction than just being hit.

Alvin looked behind him and snarled in anger, but that's about all he could do with Dave there. Simon just casually shrugged.

Dave just shook his head at Alvin and Simon. "Fritzie, Tal has asked me to include you in on this talk, so you three make yourself comfortable in the kitchen. This might be for a while."

**If I get a satisfactory amount of reviews, Chapter 24 comes tomorrow. :P**


	25. Chapter 24: The Dust Begins to Settle

**I regret to inform you guys that is... well... is the final chapter to my story. :O Yeah, following the final word count, this story was close to 100,000 words. :S Here's some super glue for your head, it probably fell off. :P**

**Once again, I'm asking for you, my fellow readers, to vote in the poll that I have on my authors profile. You may decide the fate of my storyline in terms of how I will write future installments. D:**

**This may be the final chapter, however the story is STILL not over until I release the Epilogue. Once I get a few more votes in my poll, I will release the Epilogue to fit the direction my story goes. If I don't get any more votes, I will decide how I will write any future installments though.**

**This will probably answer most of the questions you could possibly have left in your mind, such as "Where _IS_ Eleanor, is Brittany okay, and where the heck has Jeanette been the whole story?" :P**

**So anyways, stick around. Oh and I still like reviews. I know that at least 12 people read the last chapter. Please give me some acknowledgement that you read it or like it or something. I mean, there are obviously people that have read _this_ far. Even if you haven't reviewed yet, at least leave me one.**

**The Epilogue will be released, along with the closing author's note sometime in the next couple of days. In terms of story, enjoy the (near) final bit of the story. **

-Narf

**(PS- I reiterate, please vote in my poll, and reviews! Only got one last chapter. And if you dont want to vote in the poll, at least leave me a review with your opinion in terms of future installments: big sequels, episodes, or a mixture of both? I know what I want to do, but don't let any of my opinions sway you, you guys are the readers, I want to know what _you_ want.)**

**--Chapter 24: The Dust Begins to Settle--**

Fritzie looked down at the floor and shifted slightly. She kicked the wall behind her lightly as she done so, and mumbled out, "Uh... okay. As you wish."

Alvin and Simon got off the stairs and sat down in the kitchen. Fritzie looked up and saw Theodore as well make his way over to the kitchen table, as if he was part of this talk too. Once Fritzie observed, she made her way to the kitchen table as well and sat down.

"Theodore, you don't have to join us. You can watch TV if you prefer." Dave said. After all, this did not concern his youngest son. It was done for him, not with him.

"No thanks Dave, I wouldn't feel right not knowing whats going to happen." Theodore said with a sigh, as he awkwardly crutched his way into the kitchen and taking the last available chair.

"As you wish, Theodore." Dave said in a sigh.

As the kids sat down, Dave began pacing around the kitchen. It was already almost noon, so it would be a little late for breakfast, but the boys and Fritzie probably wouldn't mind having breakfast as a lunch idea. He looked sternly at Fritzie, Simon, and even more sternly at Alvin respectively.

"First of all; Alvin, Simon. What did I tell you last night?" Dave said sternly, now looking up at a high angle as he talked.

"That this was a matter for the constabulary and not to take into our own hands." Simon grumbled. Alvin looked at Simon with a stupid face.

"Constabulary? What is that- French?" Alvin said half sarcastically.

"Constabulary is better known as the police, or the cops as you call them," Simon said, rolling his eyes.

"And what did you boys do?" Dave said in the same tone.

Alvin began to fetch a glare at Simon, but then looked apologetically at Dave. "Sorry, we went on ahead and did it," Alvin admitted. Dave began to lessen his look, but then Alvin blurted out, "But it was for a good cause though! Honestly!"

Simon slapped himself in the face, and Fritzie groaned. She elbowed Alvin in the ribs. "You're not helping!" she growled in between her teeth. Dave's shoulders hung.

"Good cause or not, at the very least you may have found the wrong person or tampered with evidence. Did you boys realize there was some of Fritzie's fur on the car proving it was a hit and run?"

"I found that out last night, after we had already placed the traps. I didn't quite realize how close of a shave it was between life or death until last night. It took every ounce of my self control to not go berserk right then and there, and just as I did lose control, my concussion actually prevented me from actually going crazy then," Fritzie began to admit.

Dave raised an eyebrow, "Go on."

"If you think that framing him was part of our plan, it really wasn't. I would never let anyone, not even myself just cut off a _piece of my skin_... remember they found skin in the evidence too, to frame someone. Not to mention how immoral it is." Fritzie pointed out. She then sighed. "And the bit about me breaking the guy's window and putting him in a choke hold, that wasn't part of their plan either. It was a personal thing, and I let anger best me. I didn't want to hurt the man, that would make more trouble than any good could come out of it, but my way of revenge was scaring the living daylights out of him. I know now that I should have tried a little better to think my actions out, and I guess that's what Tal is going to help me within a week; if the guy didn't glue his own hands to the seat, who knows what he could have done to me."

Fritzie sighed again and shook her head, then rested her head on her arms on the table. "I'm not the violent type, I'm really not. I have too much compassion for those I like for my own good, and I'm a lover, not a fighter. Obviously, since I can for the most limit letting people's prejudices against dogs down to just griping. But that ingrate, that swine! As I said to the officer, it's the watchdog in me. It's instinct, and I haven't quite conquered that apparently. I am a dog after all. No matter how close I get as I travel down the anthropomorphic road, I will _never_ be completely human."

Dave nodded in understanding. "What you did Fritzie, regardless of if you were right or not, you could have been charged for assault."

Fritzie stopped looking at Dave at that point, as if the kitchen table all of a sudden became the most fascinating thing in the world. Charged for assault? Would that mean charged like an adult human, and treated horribly like a dog? It could mean horrible researching, or being euthanized. Thats a beyond scary thought. She remained to listen, but she shut up at this point.

Dave then looked at the three in trouble, still pacing around the kitchen. "As it is, the police are probably going to lessen his sentence if he doesn't press charges on you three for assault, trespassing, and destruction of property. That includes the car too." Dave stopped pacing his hands on the table. "Yes, I know what he did was wrong and against the law, and he knows that too now, but what you three did was equally the same; totally illegal."

Alvin lied his head on the table gently now too, lowering his cap almost over his eyes. Hearing about legal trouble of pranking and sabotages like that was a scary feeling, especially for being ten years old. He awaited Dave's true and final punishment, convinced it was something harsh.

Dave sighed and began pacing again. "In situations like yesterday, there are proper channels to go through for justice. It's not the right type of situation you can take into your own hands. You were very lucky that you weren't caught as it is. Like you, I wanted to 'get my own back' so to speak, one of the three that I care about the most in the world was hurt and it could have been far worse, but that is why we have the police. To fight for us in cases like this."

Simon sighed and put his hands in his lap and looked down. Was it still worth doing? Yes. Did it feel good to get lectured by Dave? No. Would he do it again in similar circumstances? Probably, but Dave was right. A million and one things could have gone wrong.

"One final thing, before I give you your sentencing, did it occur to any of you to ask your brother about what he felt about this?" Dave asked.

Theodore flinched and threw his arms halfway up in the air, as if something was about to hit him.

"What?" Fritzie and Alvin asked in question.

"Would Theodore have approved of your outing last night?" Dave asked.

Simon shook his head. "No, he probably would have tried to talk us out of it."

Dave looked over at Theodore for an answer. "I don't mean to put this one to you, but it is an important thought that Tal brought up. Would you have approved of what Alvin and Simon planned out?"

Theodore fidgeted nervously. "I do appreciate the gesture from them, but I probably wouldn't have wanted them to do it anyways. It's not that I didn't want the guy to get his share of the punishment, but... I still didn't like the idea. I'm too nice."

Fritzie took her arms out from underneath her head and then just rested her snout on the table. "If you felt so strongly about it Theodore, I wouldn't have done it, and I would have tried to talk them out of it."

Dave was irked about how right I was when I said that. Fritzie and I have a great way of determining people's personalities. Fritzie closed her eyes.

"I'm sorry." Fritzie said with a sigh. She now felt fully disappointed in what she did.

Simon and Alvin now rested their chins on the table. "We're sorry too," they said in a monotonous voice.

Theodore smiled awkwardly at them. "Don't be sorry to me. If I was 100 against it myself, I would have said something. I didn't say anything, so I can't blame you what you guys did at all. I understand. I probably would not have agreed with it if you asked me though."

"Thank you Theodore," Dave said pointly. His gaze finally softened towards the three troublemakers. Regardless what species they all were, they were still after all, just children.

Fritzie picked up on it and raised an eyebrow, but not moving otherwise.

"From now on boys, I want you to tell me when you're doing something, especially if you don't think I'll like it. The combination of both Theodore, and Tal for that matter, convinced me not to ground you two, and now that we have a guest over which was the original intent, I don't think it would be fair on Fritzie especially since that I've calmed down. _However_, that doesn't mean that I'm not disappointed about your actions last night, especially with company over. As a result, there will be no TV or video games for the next fortnight."

Simon flinched in surprise, while Alvin lifted his head and began banging his head into the table lightly. It was an involuntary reaction, because he was still in his eyes getting punished even though Dave said that they weren't. Did Dave _want_ him to come up with schemes for full privileges? TV and video games were one of the few distractions he had _from_ doing that in the first place.

Fritzie on the contrary, perked up a whole lot. Although she wasn't grounded, which Dave had no right to without Tal's permission, she could still play video games with Theodore if he was bored. Because chances were, he _was_ going to be bored with his broken leg. She looked at Alvin.

"Cheer up Alvin. If you are such a master at finding things to do as they say you are in the articles, I'm sure we could work up a plan-" Fritzie said then interrupted herself, looked at Dave, and flinched. "I-I uh mean, we could find something for us to do... I think. I don't mean scheme at all, really I didn't-"

"Easy does it Fritzie, no need to panic I understand what you meant by that," Dave said reassuringly. "Besides Alvin, you and Simon have plenty of toys to play with, and a large backyard to run around and play in, not to mention a guest over. I think it would do all three of you some good to play outside more often instead of staying cooped up in front of the television all day."

Fritzie sighed in relief and sunk into her chair. "Maybe you're into role-playing?" Fritzie began to suggest, but Alvin looked at Fritzie as if she stole his hat.

_"Role-playing!?_ Who does _that_?" Alvin barked at Fritzie. Fritzie narrowed her eyes at the obviously stupid statement.

"Hey, I'm only trying to enlighten you! You don't have to criticize it, people really take a liking to it! And besides, it's kind of fun sometimes some of the fun and wild stuff you can come up with inside your imagination. Think of it as acting without an audience, if you will. You'd probably be good at it." Fritzie said almost in irritance.

"And you are getting defensive why?" Alvin said raising his eyebrows. Fritzie sank her head into the table.

Fritzie looked sadly at the table. His comment did hurt her a little bit too. "Because, before I had any friends, that's what I used to do religiously." Alvin felt like an idiot. He wasn't trying to be offensive.

I'm s-s-sorry. I-I didn't know." Alvin stammered, trying to force it out to come cleaner than usual. Fritzie 'nodded' with her chin on the table signaling that she would let it go.

Alvin lifted his head up again though in objection. "Wait, you did say that you weren't going to ground us, yet you did take our TV and gaming privileges away. It's like saying 'I'm not robbing you, but I'm taking your money anyways, whether you like it or not.'" Alvin stated.

Fritzie winced at Alvin's very crude analogy, but it actually was true. Saying you aren't going to ground someone then revoking some privileges was a total contradiction to the statement 'I'm not going to ground you.'

Dave slapped his forehead at Alvin's outburst. He noted how hard Simon was trying to stay quiet about it. "I am telling the truth Alvin. When I ground you, it means the only time you can leave your room is going to and from school, and eating meals."

'Or at concerts,' Dave thought silently to himself. "You're still free to come and go from the house as you wish as long as you tell me where you are going. The only thing different is that you have two of your privileges taken away from you temporarily. They aren't necessities in life, not like food and water. It won't kill you to go without them for a while, and this is extremely fair on you than the original punishments I had in mind."

Alvin gulped and nodded. He still didn't like the idea of taking away the TV, but he knew it was the truth. Simon rarely watched TV or played video games though, so it of course really didn't bother him too much. Suck up.

He looked over at Theodore. Aside from whatever pain he was in, he had it _made_ for him. What would happen if he was to break his own leg somehow...? He shook his head no immediately, that idea wouldn't be worth it at all.

"Besides, I'll need both of you boys to help out around the house a little more until Theodore's leg is better," Dave said plainly. Alvin sighed again, but Simon kicked his leg from under the table.

"We understand Dave. Alvin's just being melodramatic again." Simon suggested. He didn't like the idea of revoked privileges either, but Dave was their father; he knew what was best for them... most of the time.

Theodore listened quietly to the whole conversation. No TV or video games for Alvin? He knew that Simon generally didn't care for it, although he enjoyed a good game of Halo from time to time, but if you hide something as dumb as a sheet of paper from Alvin... he goes crazy. Taking TV away from him even though he didn't watch it that much was like robbing him of his pride, or his hat. He knew that this was going to be an extra long... fortnight?

"Dave?" Theodore asked quietly, ignoring another stomach rumble. "What's a fortnight, anyways?" He did like the idea of getting the extra attention around here, but all the same, he was afraid of getting smothered. That and he also wanted to play along with whatever the other three were doing.

"A fortnight is two weeks Theodore." Dave responded, thinking about a few things.

Fritzie never really had TV to begin with. I was always deprived of having any television channels, so we both got accustomed to living without it. So in all reality, if the punishment was on her, it wouldn't affect her too much. She began to wonder what all sorts of cool stuff they had in their house and backyard, what was different from home. Then the thought of home reminded her of something.

"So, uhm, what did Tal say?" Fritzie asked sheepishly.

Dave was a bit relieved to get off of the topic about getting off their punishments. "He thanked me for letting him stay in the guest room until he found a place for you and him to live here in Los Angeles," he said with a smile. He decided to let Fritzie connect the dots herself.

Simon shot a look at Alvin. It could have been worse, and he was worried that Alvin would continue on with his current reaction that it could get worse. "Alvin," he whispered, "Dave could have grounded us for the rest of our childhood, or docked our allowance. It's only for two weeks, Alvin. It's not that bad. Besides, Fritzie's right. There's plenty of things you could come up with to do, but if you don't, I'm sure she'd be happy to steal your spotlight." Simon said raising his eyebrows, almost with a cocky tone. If that didn't make Alvin snap out of it, he didn't know what would.

Fritzie thought about what Dave said for a second, then her eyes widened. 'Did he... actually accept the job offer? Was this friendship... **permanent**?' she thought to herself. She looked at Dave, who nodded.

"Feep! Thank you Dave!!" Fritzie squeaked out happily, snapping out of whatever apathetic and depressing mood she was in.

"You're very welcome Fritzie, it was my pleasure," he said as he made his way over to the cabinets to get a mixing bowl before making his way to the fridge.

"What was that all about?" Theodore asked, a little surprised.

"I got the best stay extension in the world just now, _we're moving here_!" Fritzie said, bouncing up and down excitedly.

Alvin, Simon, and Theodore's moods lightened dramatically. "Awesome!" they said out in chorus. Dave put the ingredients for blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes on the table.

"Alright fellas, I know it's a little late for breakfast, but who's in the mood for blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes?" Dave piped out in the lightest tone he spoke that morning.

"We are!" everyone said in chorus.

"I'm glad to hear it," Dave said as he began to mix together the ingredients for Theodore's breakfast of choice. And now, maybe, they could start living their lives again. There was one final thing he had to do that morning after they ate brunch though.

* * *

After a more lighthearted breakfast, and about fifty pancakes downed, the five of them were a bit satisfied. Alvin, Simon and Fritzie told the story of their outing last night to Theodore, because Theodore still truly didn't know the whole bit of it. He did get a total kick out of it.

At about two in the afternoon, Officer Cable returned with Fritzie's cell phone back.

"Thank you once again for your assistance Mr. Seville," he said cheerfully, handing Dave a check for 1,500.

"What is this?" Dave asked in confusion. Fritzie raised an eyebrow.

"Mister Robert Cross Jr. wishes to pay for the damages he may have caused your son and your son's friend. He hopes that this is enough," Officer Cable said with a wink.

"But- but I can't take this!" Dave said, trying to hand the check back to the officer. He threw his hands up.

"Despite the damages your sons and their friend may have caused, he absolutely insisted that he still pay for what he did and not press charges." he said, lowering his hands again. "And he's also insisting on a full sentence for his actions, which is two years in federal prison and a ten year suspended license. I believe your little friend there has a way with words."

Dave looked at Fritzie, who looked worriedly back at Dave. 'What is he thinking?' she thought to herself.

"And apparently, so does her guardian." Dave said dumbfoundedly. He looked back at Officer Cable. "I still don't feel right about this." He said, looking at the check.

"He would feel insulted if you didn't," Officer Cable told him. "He felt as if he should have gone to apologize but instead headed for the local bar and driving home drunk last night. And after finding a gram of marijuana in the man's trunk as well, he's going to get that two year sentence and license revoking anyways."

"Oh, that's a shame," Dave said with a sigh. Fritzie did mention what she smelled after all in the story of what they actually did last night. It didn't come off as a total shock.

"You don't sound surprised, Dave," Officer Cable said, noting his reaction.

"Yeah, I've been told about that bit of it from their outing last night," Dave said almost to himself. He looked up at Officer Cable. "I think this time though, I think I got it through to them about pranking the neighbors. This isn't the first time you have had to deal with my boys' little 'sessions of fun.'"

"Aw, don't tell me they're retiring already! Now I'll get bored!" Officer Cable said almost fully jokingly. Letting some of his true personality show. He playfully punched Dave's arm. He was only in his early twenties after all.

Dave had to chuckle. He knew that he as an officer didn't want to put up with Alvin's schemes and neither he did himself, but he knew in their hearts, Alvin retiring would probably make things a little more dull around the place. "I don't think they are retiring per say, much to our dismay, but I think it's going to be toned down dramatically. They have somebody else now to vent their ideas with.

Fritzie waved sheepishly at Officer Cable. "Hi."

He nodded, knowing it wasn't his business. "Well, take care Dave," Officer Cable said, before poking his head in the door one last time. "Feel better Theodore."

"Thanks Officer AJ." Theodore said with a thumbs up. Dave was a bit aghast.

"Officer AJ?" Dave said in a little confusion.

Officer cable smiled. "After running in with them enough times, Theodore asked me my first name. So now the boys call me Officer AJ," he said with a grin. "Stay out of trouble, Alvin, Simon," he called, then quieted for Fritzie, "and you too Fritzie," he said with a trademarked 'The Fonz' wink. Fritzie giggled.

"We will!" The boys called. Fritzie looked up and smiled.

"I will too, and thank you for understanding," she said warmly.

"You're welcome." he said, then saluted Dave and went back to his car. Dave closed the door behind him.

"I guess you guys are quite lucky to have an officer like him," Dave said, half in confusion, but half warmly at the same time.

* * *

Later that afternoon, Dave secretly called Miss Miller.

The phone began ringing at the Miller Residence. Miss Miller bumbled her way over to the phone.

"Heylow?" Miss Miller called loudly into the phone.

"Hello, Miss Miller?" Dave said nervously into the phone. He didn't exactly want to deal with Miss Miller, but he had to know a couple of things.

"Dayfid! How is everything going with you? And what took you so long to call back!? Brittany came out of shock when Eleanor came home last night." Miss Miller said with a goofy look but a more aggravatingly confused tone into the phone.

Dave looked at the base where the cordless phone was. The message thing was blinking. Funny how nobody noticed it. "Oh, I'm sorry Miss Miller, some things happened over the course of the morning."

"Oh, okay Dayfid. Oh any by the way, I'm sorry, I accidentally blurted out to somebody about what happened to Theodore last night. Gosh those reporters can be so sneaky sometime," she commented, pointing at something imaginary. Dave slapped his forehead and sighed.

"Oh, well that answers another one of my questions. Anyways, I was wondering if you would drop the girls off since they are alright. I'm sure Alvin and Theodore would love to know if the girls are alright, and I'm sure Simon wouldn't mind Jeanette's company either." Dave explained into the phone, praying that Miss Miller got all that.

"Alrighty Dayfid, I'll bring them over right away." Miss Miller said cheerfully.

"Alright, thank you Miss Miller," Dave said lightening his tone.

**"Girls!!"** Miss Miller screamed over the phone. Dave wasn't sure if his ears were going to bleed, although this was a regular occurrence. He swore he could never get used to that. "Anyways, buh-bye Dave."

"Bye-bye." Dave said, cleaning out one of his ears before hanging up in anticipation of another loud yell. He noticed the gang coming back in from walking around the backyard a little bit, noting Theodore was pretty exhausted. He smiled, but wasn't going to say anything about the Chipettes coming. It was going to be a surprise.

He approached Theodore and rubbed his shoulder. "You alright Theodore, you look exhausted," he said in concern. Theodore nodded lightly.

"Its... going to take me... a few weeks... to get used to these things." Theodore said in between breaths. Dave sighed and involuntarily fetched a glass of water for him. The other three paraded in behind Dave.

"You know something, role-playing is actually... pretty fun." Alvin said, hard to admit his mistake about criticizing it before.

"You see? It's a good time waster, and the fact that I never role played in real life before, it gives it an added edge. It's like _living_ in your fantasies!" Fritzie said excitedly, but somewhat out of breath.

"Wouldn't that be called 'cosplaying' Fritzie?" Simon interjected. Fritzie stopped and hit her fist into her other paw a few times.

"You know what, you're absolutely right Simon! I never thought of that. Thanks! Maybe we could come up with costumes for it." Fritzie said objectively. Everyone laughed.

In the middle of their laughing though, the screech of tires pulled up out front, which meant one of two things. Either there was another officer here for some newly found thing, or it was...

Miss Miller flung the door open and started wildly looking around for everyone.

"Dayfid? Boys?" Miss Miller called out wildly. Brittany, Jeanette, and Eleanor followed in behind them.

"Brittany!" Alvin yelled out happily, rushing over to give her a hug. Brittany began trying to push Alvin away from her.

"Ugh, Alvin, cut it out, what are you doing to me!" Brittany snorted in response. Alvin sulked slightly, then batted an eye at her instead.

"What, would you rather be like, 'Oh my god it's Brittany, batten down the hatches! We're going in!' instead?"

"Alvin, you wouldn't do that to me!" Brittany snorted back.

Simon and Theodore laughed, it was good to have Brittany back. Fritzie though, didn't like it.

"Hey, he obviously cares that you were hurt yesterday, and now he feels great that your better. Can't you just appreciate it instead of chasing him off!?" Fritzie said narrowing her eyes. Simon slapped his forehead.

"Oh no, now Fritzie's going to try to settle one of their arguments... good luck with that," he whispered to Theodore.

Brittany, instead softened and hugged Alvin back. Fritzie stood happily. "Everyone here was at least somewhat worried about you. Shock isn't exactly something to just slough off. I mean I don't even know you that well and I still was worried about you."

Brittany softened her eyes towards Fritzie. She was a bit speechless. Alvin was a little shocked about Brittany's reaction.

"I- uh, thank you." Brittany said, looking downcast at the floor. Fritzie patted her on the back then moved on to greet Jeanette.

"Hi there, sorry, you must be the third sister that I wasn't mentioned to much about in the panic yesterday. You are?"

Jeanette blushed and almost folded up like a card. "I'm uh, Jeanette."

Fritzie's ears drooped. She was so shy, it reminded her of me around new people. "Hi there Jeanette. It's a pleasure to meet you. Once you get to know me a little better, I'm pretty easy to talk to. I understand you're shy."

Jeanette felt a little more comfortable. Fritzie grinned. "Thank you, its uh, nice to meet you too. I wasn't told much about you the same though."

"Oh, I'm the contest winner, and sort of the 'Unlikely Hero' per say 'round here. You'll probably get to know me a bit more, I'm moving 'round here." Fritzie said with a grin. She finally moved onto Eleanor, who she could see now in color.

Fritzie studied Eleanor a little bit, but softened up. "And hello there, you must be Eleanor."

Theodore finally approached out of hiding behind the kitchen wall. "Eleanor?" Theodore asked shyly. Eleanor gasped at Theodore's injury.

"Oh my goodness, so what I hear was so true. I'm so sorry! I should have called you, I didn't think that this would happen," Eleanor said worriedly, hugging Theodore. Theodore blushed and stood still.

Fritzie looked at Eleanor understandingly. She knew that she didn't mean to ignore her, after all, they seemed very close to each other at heart. She couldn't interrupt that.

Theodore's eyes began to water. "It's okay Eleanor. I was more worried about you. Brittany came over here looking for you, I thought something happened. And after what happened to me, some of us thought that you might have been in danger too."

Eleanor almost began crying herself. "I only went off to get muffin mix from the store, before Dave would have gotten home. I really should have called!"

Fritzie put her hand on Eleanor's shoulder. "He really doesn't blame you. It's not your fault either." Fritzie said reassuringly. Theodore grinned. Eleanor spun around to look at Fritzie.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to ignore you like that," she said, a little embarrassed. Fritzie gave Eleanor a hug.

"I understand. You actually made a bunch of magical things happen with your decision, if you overlook the bad." Fritzie said, then backed up.

"So you are the one that saved him?" Eleanor asked, drooping the features in her face. Fritzie nodded.

"I remember seeing you skipping by to the store on the last leg of my trip here. I put Theodore's mind to ease, but you're sister didn't take it well," she said, glancing at Brittany. "She came here looking for you because she was worried too, and when I mentioned seeing you, she went into shock and Theodore came back to consciousness."

Eleanor looked awkwardly at the floor. "Are you alright?" she asked in a dull tone. Fritzie lifted her chin up with her 'finger.'

"I'm a tough cookie. I'll be fine. The injuries I inflicted on myself have been beneficial in a few situations, and I can see in beautiful color now. Your accidental decision may not seem like it, and it might sound a little awkward, but it done a world of good." She said with a grin. "And like Theodore, I try not to be a downer, look at the positive things in life. The glass is half full."

Now it was Eleanor's turn to hug Fritzie, followed by Theodore, followed by the rest of the kids there. Fritzie let out the widest smile on her face.

"What did you need muffin mix for exactly, anyways?" Fritzie asked in confusion. So much effort for one item, what could be so possibly important about cupcakes anyways?

"We were going to bake cupcakes for the winner of the contest." Theodore said suggestively. Fritzie hugged Theodore tightly. He began coughing. "Okay okay, easy, please." Theodore begged. Fritzie eased him down and put her hand behind her head in embarrassment.

"Oh, sorry. Wow, cupcakes. I didn't know this whole thing was baking for me. It's a shame that it didn't get to happen according to plan." Fritzie said, putting a 'finger' to her bottom lip to think. Dave entered the room.

"Well, Theodore did bake a plateful of cookies, didn't he?" Dave suggested. All of a sudden it clicked.

"Oh yeah! That's right! Dave can you go get it please? We can share it with everyone!" Theodore said in excitement. Dave gently took the plate of cookies down for everyone to have one, including Miss Miller.

"Oh, you had more!? You little sneak!" Alvin commented, remembering yesterday morning. Theodore giggled.

"If you would have known, you would have eaten them a- Alvin!!" Theodore squeaked irritantly as Alvin began running off with the plateful of cookies.

Dave shook his head, he about had it with Alvin. "AAAALLLLVVVVIIINNN!!"

**Stick around, this story still isnt _complete_ yet! There is some important foreshadowing in the prologue, as the next story will start three weeks after Unlikely Hero... however I end up wirting it.**

**And remember, I'm a review and feedback whore. "Fill me up" metaphorically. XD That will be five bucks.**


	26. Epilogue and Closing Author's Notes

**Hey guys, not much of an author's note up here, but be sure to read down after the Epilogue, becasue theres much important stuff down there in terms of a sequel, what won, and whatnot.**

**--Epilogue: Immediate Aftermath--**

Alvin relinquished the cookies, telling Dave how to take a joke properly. Of course, everyone knew he would have eaten them all.

Later that afternoon, they media did manage to get one interview out of it. Fritzie managed to get her two cents in, and it sealed her as a celebrity.

When she was asked about her what helped her cope with it, she had a plain and simple answer for that.

* * *

_"When I was on my way here, there was a real goofy bus driver that took me from the airport to the middle of town. Hi Calvin, you have no idea how much you helped me, thanks a bunch bro!" She said, giving a thumbs up at the screen._

_Calvin happened to be watching the TV at home after a busy day at work. His jaw dropped when he saw it._

_"Oh, and what did he say to you that was so special?" The reporter asked. Fritzie sank casually into her chair and stuck one of her arms out to the side casually._

_"All yeh need to do is be at the right place at the right time and do the right thing," she said, imitating his voice. "Simon just so happened to say that, and it instantly made me feel better, because he was such a nice guy to me. It's unusual compared to the usual dog prejudices I deal with on an almost daily basis. Anyways, Calvin, if yer' watching, you were right! Have a good 'un buddeh!"_

_Calvin grinned at himself furiously. "Methinks I struck a chord on teh awesomeness. I knew she was superstar material." He said in content as he leaned back into the couch._

_"Well, even eccentric people can do good things in the world," the reporter commented. It was supposed to sound peachy, but it came out rather rude instead. Fritzie raised an eyebrow._

_"Hey, if everyone in the world was sane, the world would be a dull and ininteresting place. That and the world would have one too many reporters," Fritzie said dryly. Simon fell onto the set laughing._

* * *

As things began to get settled around the house, Fritzie, Simon and Alvin began to get more interested in 'cosplaying' per say in their backyard, and Theodore found it fun to watch, even though it was not as fun as actually taking part of it.

Fritzie surprisingly not only got along with the boys incredibly well, but she also got along with the girls incredibly well too. She was able to stop many a fight between Alvin and Brittany, which was in a sense, awesome for everyone. Occasionally though, Fritzie would take part of the fray. After all, she didn't entirely want to be a killjoy. It just wasn't her style.

However, while a tension began to relieviate a little between Alvin and Brittany, there was a new tension beginning between Alvin and Simon. As Alvin became somewhat calmer since he had a way to vent, Simon became a little bit more aggressive. And as a result from it, Theodore started becoming a bit less tolerant to their fights. It started off slow though.

I quit my job about two hours after my call. I went ahead and gave her my work clothes that day, and said I will be back for my final check in eleven days. As far as saying goodbye to any of my coworkers, there was only a handful of people I could say goodbye to and they were all there. The rest of them quit during the time between February and May, and were replaced by idiots or insensitive people. What a bad aftertaste.

Saying goodbye to my three friends in question were a bit difficult. My friend Erich moved in April, and my friend Nathan lived in Ocala, so I really didn't have time or contact to bid farewell. In all reality though, if the job opportunity turned into an actual job, it would mean that I would be able to visit once every few months. After all, I still had family in the county. Why not?

Cameron asked me to take him with me. I had to laugh. As much as I would have loved it, he was still in high school, and was seventeen. I couldn't legally do that, much to my dismay. Plus I didn't want to pressure Dave if I didn't have to.

Paul and Eden were a bit more upset than Cameron, but they understood and told me whatever I did they would support me as best they could. They were as close as siblings to me, even though I rarely got to see them lately, and that Eden's boyfriend had a few irks about me.

I packed up what few belongings I really needed and set out for California the next morning. It was going to be a long four day drive. I had enough money in the bank to get by for about a month by myself. Even if Dave didn't help me, which I really didn't want to exactly in terms of finances, it gave me some time to find a decent apartment or perhaps rent a house and learn the ropes if I got the job. If the opportunity fell through, I would have to look for a new job when I got back home, but I was ready to leave my current job anyways. That wasn't anything new.

The greatest adrenaline rush of my life was when I arrived at Dave's doorstep, and Fritzie tackled me back to the pavement. It was exciting living a new life; seeing my doggy little sister happy finally, and living temporarily with three of the worlds coolest kids.

Two days after my arrival, Theodore finally gotten his hard cast. It was a shiny new green full leg cast. It was a bit cumbersome, but it was the only way how Theodore would fully heal. He thought it was pretty cool though at first. And going back to school that Monday, it quickly filled up with signatures, including Fritzie's (which read 'Siblings by luck, watching out for you buddy. -Fritzie' and with a little paw print on it) and mine (which was actually a drawing and a little blurb that said 'You're my baby brother too. :P -Narf')

As I got settled, Dave insisted on paying for my flight to get my paycheck round trip. I found out that he forgot to put the phone number on the paper I received in the letter, which was the strangest mistake he ever made. At the time, I thought it was stupid too, but when I arrived and heard it then, I looked back in retrospect, and asked if it was worth forgetting to do.

Dave thought about it for a second, and nodded. It was dozens of tiny mistakes and timing that made this work out the way it did. And in more ways than not, it was the best things that could have ever happened.

I began training Fritzie on her impulses the day the boys started up school again. Knowledge wise, she was a fast learner. And as Simon promised, she was tutored on colors. She had the whole concept down pact in two days, and knew all of the basic and intermediate colors by heart. It was quite amazing being able to have Fritzie understand color. However, trying to change her personality and primative impulses were more of challenge to deal with, and often, living in the Seville household made it that much harder.

Within a few weeks, one of the houses in the neighborhood went up for rent, and considering my new job, it became a good place to start a new life (and finally get some privacy.)

However, as my life finally started to settle, and the strange dreams subsided, problems began to grow in the immediate surroundings. Fritzie started having strange dreams that were a little bit beyond my comprehension. The Seville brothers started to change in personality. And finally, the biggest problem in our lives was was waiting half dead in the woods on the side of the interstate fifty or so miles out of town.

* * *

**Firstly, to clear up a few details.**

**For starters, I did NOT try to make this story sound like a spin off idea of Neptune's Ocean. It's a great story, and it does look like I borrowed the idea from it. If you never read Neptune's Ocean, be sure to check it out and at least read the first chapter. If you have, or you just came back from looking at it, you will probably understand what I'm talking about.**

**In essence, writing the fanfic did in fact borrow the idea, however, this was not my idea to do this. This story was actually written from a _role-play_ instead. One of the role-players, suitingly enough happened to be the Theodore of that particular sub-forum at the time decided to use that as an evasive maneuver to abruptly end the role-play, or at least duck out of it. Instead, I stuck it to him, and had my original character Fritzie, who has been a symbolic character in my drawings for the last eight years, save him in the nick of time. As the fanfic began to unravel though, it was one of those things where it became a shame to just leave it as a role-play. So I took it up a notch, and when I was positive it would make a good fanfic, I began writing this. What ultimately turned up though, was that to save the role-play after the Theodore's absence, I had to resume his role, playing Alvin, Fritzie, AND Theodore simultaneously. It wasn't a bore though. :P**

**The fanfic does not 100 percent follow the role-play, needless to say. There were many missing gaps, and the role-play is slightly out of order. Role-playing isn't the same as writing a fanfic. It doesn't need to be exactly in chronological order to make sense, unless you got lost in the dust, like the Brittany of the forum did, and that's why Brittany 'went into shock.' (Understand now, Allie? :P)**

**This story was actually very fun to role-play, and just as fun to write. I could not have done it, without Andrew, (who played as Theodore for only chapter four, the rest was written by as filler space, or played by myself) Allie, (who played as the Brittany in the story) and most importantly, Felicity, who actually in the role play wrote a large chunk of the groundwork. (playing as Simon, Dave, the police officer, and Doctor Harris) The rest, the song choices, Alvin, the remainder of Theodore's lines, Fritzie, Tal, (which is me in real life, as if I were involved in the situations) the 'bad guy,' the first four and the final two chapters is my work. I wrote 65 of the material of this fanfic, and written the entire finished product by myself.**

**I feel shameful taking all of the credit though, so I have to give major kudos to the three that role-played with me, and although Andrew has the smallest part, it's all him that made the story go in the direction that it did.**

**I will leave a link to the exact groundwork of the story. HOWEVER, and a big however, the sequel's immediate groundworks are also there. So if you don't like spoilers, don't stray off the post that I linked you to, okay?**

**I not only have large sequel idea to this storyline, but two. The first sequel (Unlikely Hero II) is called "The Small and the Forlorn," and the third sequel (Unlikely Hero III) if I can hang on that long, will be called "Finding Your Place," and it deals with the a few surprises that happen after The Small and the Forlorn.**

**I would like to warn you, the next story is pretty dark. It will contain similar humorous gigs in it, but the story itself is generally dark. The third story if I can hang in there is a much more lighthearted story, but you have to get through the night in order to get to the next day, right?**

**I'm very proud of this story. The reason being is that I never completed a story on this caliber before. Most stories don't get further than the planning stage, and even fewer make it past the first three chapters, example, my other AATC fanfic series. I made grand plans with it, going into several sequels, but for the most part died off. The title of this fanfic was actually borrowed from what was originally, going to be book six of the old series. I'd rather not get into it, because I'm almost positive I won't touch that series, not after what rolled out of this one. The only story I got close to as far as this one went, was my original story "Bone Wars" which is based off of Fritzie and her group of slicker dog friends getting sucked into a space war. I reached about eighty pages into that story, this one was around one-seventy (not including the various author's notes).**

**What I really wasn't expecting was my first complete story to be a fanfic, latter known a fanfic of a cartoon that I missed growing up. Hopefully as I discover more about the Chipmunk universe, I will be able to get a better feel of character interactions. I understand that some of the character's personalities are a bit off, particularly Alvin, which was my ORIGINAL role in the role-play. (Along with Fritzie of course.) However, if you were a stressed out kid because your brother was involved in a hit and run, you probably would act out-of-character at times too, right?**

**And as I released this story, I actually did learn a few things. And those things will have a major influence on book three.**

**In terms of side stories, one side story will be a Fritzie role-play with Alvin, Simon, Jeanette, Eleanor, and the injured Theodore. I might lay a song in there, I don't know though.**

**And one final thing, before I shut up with the massive overgabbing, I was absolutely aghast at my story's word count! Its epic caliber. EPIC.**

Thank you guys so much for reading. Keep in tune for any future installments! :D

-Narf


	27. Post Closing Author's Notes

**Post Complete Autors Note (Redone)**

**Yeah, I once again have another one of these post complete authors notes. The main point I'm getting across here, is that I changed the ending to the story slightly.**

**There's two reasons why:**

**1.) I have to completely rewrite my sequel. I accidentally reformatted my entire hard drive on my computer, so I had to use a new one. So I lost about a hundred drawings, about six hundred screenshots, and all my stories. This includes my sequel. I can't quite say that I lost this story, because it's in two places: here, and DeviantART.**

**2.) I had to completely rewrite my sequel anyways. After going back and re-reading it all, I realized that my sequel would have sucked if I continued writing it the way I did. To sum it up, I probably would have gotten a bunch of reviews saying "Unlikely Hero was better," and I want my sequel to be at least as good as this story was.**

**I'm not trying to come up with excuses, I'm really not. I'm just trying to get my priorities figured out. After this story, I fell back into my normal routine of writing a story half way then just losing interest in it, and I also recieved several motivational bombs, ranging from heartbreak, to gaming addiction, to death in the family. (Our bird. Might not have gotten along with her, but I still loved her enough to aknowledge her as family.)**

**I need a little bit of pressure then please, if you guys don't mind. I'm not trying to make this sound like a threat, but I need you guys to give me a reason to continue with the storyline if you know what I mean. If I have the spotlight over me a little bit, I might finally have a glimmer of motivation to continue, something fresh.**

**As I said in the first sentence of the prologue, I did not revive this story to hound reviews out of people. But if you guys please would consider writing reviews for any of the chapters, any at all, it just might be the ticket to me writing again. I have lots of ideas to continue this storyline for several stories, I'm also an awesome procrastinator though. (And that's not a good thing, for everyone else that is. :P)**

**Anyways, take it easy. And just remember, I'm still alive. :P**

**-Narf**


End file.
